


can't believe i've captured your heart

by aryasbadbenergy



Category: Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Drinking, Drug Use, F/M, Gendrya BigBang, Partying, Referenced Drug Use, Surgeons AU, Swearing, basically life as we know it, godparents au, lyanna and shireen die im so sorry, parenting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-19
Updated: 2020-07-16
Packaged: 2021-03-04 04:14:31
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 5
Words: 23,934
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24687469
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aryasbadbenergy/pseuds/aryasbadbenergy
Summary: Gendry and Arya work as competing Pediatric Fellows in the same hospital. While Arya is a little bitter about a stolen surgery from a few hours ago, it is hard to ignore him at her best friends’ pre-baby party when he is the only other person there that has a shot at being the baby’s godparent.((named for "wake me" by bleachers))
Relationships: Arya Stark/Gendry Waters, extra minor Jon Snow/Daenerys Targaryen, minor Shireen Baratheon/Lyanna Mormont
Comments: 120
Kudos: 208
Collections: Modern Gendrya





	1. mind over matter

**Author's Note:**

> big thank you to randifrnZ for all of your hard work beta-ing this and the-bisexual-disaster for the artwork !!

__

_And if the world don't break_   
_I'll be shakin' it_   
_'Cause I'm a young man after all_   
_And when the seasons change_   
_Will you stand by me?_   
_'Cause I'm a young man built to fall_

_Mind Over Matter ~ Young the Giant_

Shireen is easily spotted in the crowd in the middle of her kitchen. Her face is bright red and she’s grinning, sloshing her drink a little every time she moves her arm. She nearly squeals when she spots Arya and wraps her in a hug, spilling a little bit of her drink down Arya’s arm. 

_Hmm. Strawberry._

“Arya! You made it!” 

Arya smiles and pats Shireen on the back. “I wouldn’t have missed it for the world. I promised you I would be here, didn’t I?”

Shireen nods. “You make lots of promises,” she murmurs.

“Like when you promised me that you ‘wouldn’t miss the baby shower for the world,’ and yet…” Lyanna tsks with an eyebrow raise. 

Arya opens her mouth in mock offense. “Now that’s not fair. That was an emergency and I was on call,” Arya says. “I still dropped off Baby Moratheon’s gift later, too!”

“Mmhmm.” Lyanna rests her arm on her belly--that looks like it’s doubled since Arya had last seen her--and studies Shireen’s face. “How much have you had to drink?”

Shireen shrugs and twists her lips into a weird shape. “A few.” She brings the cup back up to her lips, but Lyanna covers the cup, causing Shireen to kiss her hand instead. 

“I think it’s probably time for water. Or maybe some Bagel Bites.”

Shireen sighs. “But it’s our last bash before Baby Moratheon.”

“Well, how do you think I feel? I don’t even get a last bash,” she teases and grabs Shireen’s hand to get her to the snack table.

Arya scans the crowd again. She feels like she was back in college from the number of people who came to celebrate the last bit of Shireen and Lyanna’s pre-parenthood. 

“Arya?” 

Arya turns at the sound of her friend’s voice. “It’s Arya!” another shouts. 

She grins and wraps them both in a hug. “We haven’t seen you in forever, oh my Gods,” Talea says.

“Yeah, we thought that you moved into the hospital,” Brea teases.

Arya shakes her head and shrugs. It wasn’t too far from the truth. 

“Don’t worry, I haven’t moved in… yet. Though, I heard the on-call room is nice this time of year. Anyways, what have you two been up to?”

“Well, you see that eye-candy over there?” Talea asks. It wasn’t the response Arya was looking for, but she wasn’t too surprised. “We were just getting ready to do a round of rock-paper-scissors to see who should talk to him. We’re betting on his name. He looks like a Thomas, right?”

Arya turns to look in the direction that they’re facing. 

She narrows her eyes. It couldn’t be _him_. 

Why would he be at the pre-baby party? Arya’s positive that he’s never gone to a party in his life. 

And, what kind of sick joke is this? She doesn’t have to deal with him at work often enough?

“Personally, I think he looks like a Robert,” Brea says. 

“That’s only because he looks a lot like Robert Baratheon. Of course you would say he’s a Ro—“

“His name is Gendry.” 

“Really?”

“Of all the names, _that’s_ your guess?” 

“It’s not a guess. That’s Dr. Gendry Waters. And he’s a prick,” Arya assures. 

“A doctor?” Brea nearly swoons. 

“I’m a doctor,” Arya says. 

“Yeah, but it’s not the same.” 

Arya gapes at her for a moment. “Did you not hear me call him a prick? Or does that get canceled out since he’s a doctor?”

Brea doesn’t even hide her grin. “I mean…”

Arya groans. She wanted to spend the evening catching up with friends and maybe flirt with someone a little, not listen to her friends gush over her coworker. 

Who stole a surgery right out from under her this morning, might she add. 

She was just finishing up her rounds before she could scrub in, when her last patient threw up on her. While she was busy getting cleaned up, Waters was busy taking her spot. 

(And, of course, she understands that her spot needed to be filled, but why, why, _why_ did it have to be him?) 

Arya is convinced that this must be a nightmare. 

She tried so many times to get him to go out with her and the others during their internship, and she tried to invite him to a celebratory party after they passed their exams, and she’s even tried inviting him to sit with her for lunch, but he’s never once accepted her invites. 

Yet, here he is, at what basically feels like a college party, drinking a beer in the corner and near-smiling with Hot Pie. Hot Pie. How the hell does he know Hot Pie? And, how does he know Shireen and Lyanna?

If Arya didn’t have surgery in the morning, she would probably need a drink, too.

And, dammit, Arya really wants one of Hot Pie’s famous cupcakes, but of course, Hot Pie is guarding them and, of course, Waters has to sit by him. 

* * *

“Do you want a shot?” Myrcella asks. She holds up a bottle of liquor. 

“Oh, no, no, no,” Arya shakes her head violently. “I have a surgery to scrub in for at ten tomorrow. I do not need anything getting in the way of that.” 

“One shot?” Myrcella flutters her eyelashes, and Arya shoves two fingers to Myrcella’s forehead, causing her to fall into Mycah’s lap. Myrcella just laughs as Arya walks away from the peer pressure. She loves her friends, but maybe she loves them more when they all have to be sober for the evening, too. She pulls an orange juice out of the cooler and searches for a spot to sit. She grins when she sees the little woven bench a little bit away from the patio, but stops grinning when she sees somebody already sitting there. But, it isn’t just somebody, it’s Waters. 

He watches her approach, and they make eye contact. Now, it would be stupid to turn around without saying anything. 

“Thought that was you I saw earlier,” he says. It’s probably the first time he’s ever initiated a conversation with her. She realizes she needs to respond.

“Yep. It’s me.” 

Waters nods. 

“Well, anyways, I didn’t realize you were already sitting here, so…”

“You can sit here.”

Arya raises her eyebrows. He had rejected her invitations for how many years now? Did he just invite her to sit with him? 

She ponders it for a moment. She had herself half convinced that Waters never wanted to form good friendships with anyone in the program—her, especially—because it would make the competition harder. It's much easier for him to steal a surgery from her if they aren’t close friends. 

Maybe this is a ploy of his to get Arya hungover for the surgery tomorrow, so he can take it. 

But, he scoots over and pulls his arm off the backrest and into his lap and gives her something that kind of resembles a smile. So, she sits. 

“So, what are you doing here?”

“I could ask you the same thing, Stark.”

Arya raises her eyebrow. “Right, but since I asked you first…”

“Shireen’s my little sister. She asked me to be here.” Arya knew Shireen had an older brother, but he was busy a lot, so Arya had never actually met him. Based on the photos Arya had seen around Shireen’s place, he hated to be photographed, too, because Arya has never seen him in one of her pictures. 

“ _You’re_ Shireen’s brother?” Arya doesn’t mean for it to sound as rude as it does when it falls from her mouth. Shireen had been shy when Arya first met her, but she was an extremely sweet girl. (She was so shy, that she would hide in her bedroom every time Arya invited Lyanna over to do some coursework for almost an entire year. Lyanna had found it endearing, and Arya had been sure that Shireen was going to faint on the spot when Lyanna invited her to dinner for the first time.)

Waters isn’t shy. He’s just rude and sullen. And Waters never accepts invites anywhere. There’s no way Waters could be Shireen’s brother. 

“I am. What are you doing here?”

“Lyanna and Shireen are my best friends.”

“How come I’ve never ‘met’ you, then?”

“What, you think I saw a party from the road and just decided to show up? I actually don’t know any of these people, which is why I came to sit by my asshole coworker, who I, by the way, have never met through Shireen either, so--” Waters leans forward and rests his elbows on his knees. Arya pauses. She thinks about apologizing. She probably shouldn’t have called him an asshole. 

“I don’t see her very often,” he admits. 

Arya has to admit that she doesn’t see Shireen very often anymore, either.

“I didn’t mean to call you an asshole,” Arya says. “It just--”

“Came out? That's okay. I get that a lot.” 

Arya gives him a half-shrug. It is true. 

“So, are you the baby’s godmother?”

“Baby Moratheon’s? I think I’m a candidate.”

“Baby Mor...atheon?”

“Unnamed baby of a Baratheon and Mormont, squish the names together and it makes Moratheon. It’s not heart surgery.”

But, the surgery Waters stole this morning was. 

He almost smiles again. “Good nickname.”

“But, since you’re Shireen’s brother, does that mean that you know what the baby’s real name is?”

“Nope. She won’t tell me, either.”

“Damn. Are you a candidate for being Baby Moratheon’s godfather?”

Waters shakes his head. “I don’t think so. Shireen called me this morning and told me to ‘be here, _or else_ ,’ and then she hung up on me, so I think I’m on pretty thin ice.”

“To be fair, though,” Arya glances at Shireen as she pops the cap off of another alcoholic lemonade. “I don’t think she’ll remember if you were here or not.”

“Yeah, someone should probably cut her off.”

“Lyanna already tried.”

Waters does laugh. It’s a few short breaths with a smile, really, but it’s still a laugh. 

* * *

His arm slowly makes its way back up to the backrest. Arya pretends she doesn’t notice. At this point in the night, he’s got his hand mere inches behind her neck and his body is tilted a little to watch her as she talks. He doesn’t have much to say, but he seems to like listening to her talk about what she would research if she won the grant she applied for a few months ago.

Maybe after tonight, he’ll finally accept one of her invitations to lunch. 

“Arry!” A voice from behind the bench calls. She turns to see Hot Pie and Lommy. While she is glad to see them-- and gladder to see the cupcake Hot Pie is holding out to her-- she couldn’t be more annoyed by their timing. 

“Hey, Hot Pie,” she stands and wraps him in a hug. Lommy pulls her away from Hot Pie and hugs her, too. “Hey, Lommy.” 

Waters pulls his arm back into his lap. She grabs the cupcake from Hot Pie and takes a bite out of it. “This is really good!” Hot Pie beams and Arya gives him the best smile she can with cupcake in her mouth.

She chats with them for a bit and then turns to Waters. “So, how do you and Hot Pie know each other?”

“College,” Waters answers, and stands. He starts to walk back inside, but Arya refuses to let him get away when people come over after she has finally got him talking. She starts to walk inside, too, and Lommy and Hot Pie share a shrug before trailing after her. She finds Waters at the snack table, loading up a plate with mini tacos. 

“Where in college?”

“Class.”

Like pulling teeth. “What class?”

“Stats, maybe.”

Arya manages to hold back an eyeroll, but can’t stop the deep sigh. Maybe, it isn’t worth it. 

Whatever. He could eat his lunch alone for the rest of their careers for all she cares. He is the worst conversation-holder she’s ever met.

She grabs a mini taco and slumps down on one of the couches in the center of the living room. Hot Pie and Lommy rejoin her and sit on either side of her. Lommy starts updating her on one of his pastimes that Hot Pie _swears_ he does not create baked goods for. 

To her surprise, Waters sits down in the chair by the couch with his plate of tacos. 

He doesn’t say anything, though. 

“I know Gendry from college, too, actually,” Lommy announces. 

Arya furrows her eyebrows. “You never went to college.”

Lommy nods. “You’re correct.”

“Then how’d you two meet?”

Waters looks up from his tacos and glares at Lommy and now Arya definitely has to know how they knew each other. 

“I used to sell him weed.”

Arya looks at Waters in mock surprise. “ _Wow_ , Waters, really? You were doing drugs?”

Waters rubs the back of his neck, more than a little awkwardly. 

“I mean, come on, you’re a doctor. Not just any doctor, either. You're a pediatrician. _Practice what you preach_ ,” she teases. Waters stops glaring at Lommy a little and gives her a half smile.

“Undergrad was rough. You’d understand.”

* * *

“I’ll be right back,” Waters says, and Arya nods. He walks down the hallway towards the bathroom, and Arya pauses for a moment. He said he would be right back, and Arya was going to sit patiently for him. This definitely felt weird. 

She feels a pair of hands grab her shoulders from behind and hears Talea’s voice in her ear, “just do it already,” she groans. Her mouth stinks of liquor. 

“Do what?”

“ _Him_ ,” Talea hisses. “We’ve been watching this for hours. Brea bet me a twenty that he would make the first move, but I know you can. If not for yourself, at least do it for me.”

“Who says any moves will be made?”

“Me and Brea. And Lommy and Hot Pie even made a joke about it before they left.”

Arya rolls her eyes and shoves Talea’s hands off when she sees Waters walk back from the bathroom. “I’m helping to try you,” Talea says. She blinks for a moment. “I think that was supposed to be the other way around.” 

Arya twists around on the couch to pat Talea’s shoulder. “I think you should probably try water.” 

Talea walks back into the kitchen with Shireen and Myrcella who are mixing some horrible looking concoction. Arya thinks she heard them playing truth or dare and pities the poor soul who has been dared to drink it. 

Waters sits back down by her and tries to tell her about a new technique Dr. Targaryen has been working on when Talea yells over him. 

“Arya! Truth or dare?” 

“I’m not playing!” Arya shouts back. She has a doctorate and hasn’t played truth or dare since she was in undergrad. She isn’t gonna change that without a least a few drinks to blame for it.

“Just one round!” Mycah pleads. He holds the empty glass from the disgusting mix. Arya thinks back to the pity she felt for him a few minutes ago.

“Fine, I will do one round. But I can’t drink any alcohol.” 

“That’s fair. Truth or dare?” Talea smiles to herself. “Heh. That rhymes.” 

“Dare.” 

Talea grins and walks towards Arya. She sits on the armrest of the couch and smiles at Waters. Arya probably should’ve seen that coming. 

“Kiss Henry!”

Arya looks at Waters. “There are no Henrys here, right?” He shakes his head. 

“Well, sorry, Talea. No can do, there isn’t a Henry in sight.”

“Dammit! I mean Gendry. You know I mean Gendry!”

“Sorry, you can’t change the dare once you’ve said it. Rules are rules,” Arya says with a shrug. Talea glares at her as she walks away and ends up walking into a wall. Waters laughs. 

“Are you okay?”’ He asks after a moment of Talea rubbing her head. 

Talea sits down on the nearest stool. “Oh, I’m fine, Henry,” she grumbles. 

* * *

Arya only has the chance to hug Lyanna goodbye. The rest of her friends are sleeping on an air mattress on the floor, and Arya doesn’t want to risk waking them up. 

Waters leaves with her. 

“Where’s your car?” She asks. 

“I planned on drinking a little, so I got an uber here.” 

“Oh, that was smart.” 

He nods. 

“Well, I can just drive you home. You live close to here, right?” 

“Oh, no, that’s okay, I can just take an uber home.” 

“No, really, it’s fine. I don’t mind,” she says and gives him a small smile. 

“Thanks.” 

She nods and leads him to her car. He laughs behind her. 

“What?”

“That’s not your car, is it?” 

Arya scoffs and turns away from her Smart Car. “Don’t make fun of him,” she says. 

“It looks like a clown car.”

“Well, excuse me for being a friend to the environment.” She holds her hands up in mock defense. 

“I guess that makes it redeemable.” 

Arya laughs and drops her keys. She tries to catch them but misses. Waters picks them up before she leans down. 

“Are you sure your reflexes are good enough to be driving? Have you been drinking, ma’am?” 

“Only juice,” she says and reaches for her keys. Waters holds them over his head. “Give them back!” 

“I don’t know. Can you do the alphabet backwards for me, please?” 

“Give them back!” She jumps and tries to grab them from his hand. 

“Make me.” 

Arya laughs. “I used to take karate lessons when I was younger, I think you want to take that comment back,” she warns. 

Waters smiles at her. “No, I don’t think so.” 

“If you don’t give me my keys back, I can’t drive you home.” She crosses her arms. 

Waters shrugs. “We could just skip that stop.” 

It takes Arya a moment to realize what he’s implying. Sure, he had flirted with her a little earlier, but he hadn’t been so forward. 

He glances at her lips and swallows hard. 

Arya realizes she hasn’t responded yet. “Can you lean down?”

“Why? So you can just grab your keys from me?” 

“No. So I can kiss you.” 

“Oh.”

“If that’s okay.”

Waters nods. “That’s okay.” 

He hands her keys back. 

"Should I call you Dr. Waters? Is that a turn on for you?" She asks. 

"Gendry. Call me Gendry," he murmurs and leans down. 

* * *

Arya stares at her clock the next morning. It’s almost seven. She wants to get ready for work, but Gendry is still sleeping soundly beside her. She isn’t scared to wake him up, _at all_ , because she has plenty of time before work to talk about last night, when Gendry wakes up. 

She listens to the small tick of her clock with every second that passes, and it puts her on edge. She doesn’t like to be late, but she’s not going to get in the shower and let him leave without discussing last night.

When his phone starts ringing, Arya almost lets out a sigh of relief. 

He groans and rubs his eyes. “What time is it?” he grumbles to Arya and rolls to his back beside her. 

“Seven.” 

He grabs the phone off her nightstand and squints at the screen. “Sorry, I’ve gotta take this.” 

Arya nods. “Go ahead.”

“Excuse me,” he says and grabs his cellphone. He walks back out of her bedroom and closes the door. “Hey, Mya,” Arya can still hear him through her door. She tries to ignore it, but she can hear him let out a little laugh which she had to fight to get out of him for hours last night. “Oh, thank gods, I’m so glad you found my ring.” 

Arya makes her bed. 

“Yes, of course, we’re still getting dinner tonight,” and then he laughs again. “Oh sure, I’d love to see you in a red dress.” 

Arya furrows her eyebrows. He had never mentioned having anyone else, and she has never seen him wear a ring. But if he was going to dinner on a Saturday night with a Mya in a red dress, Arya would be stupid if she let him fool her with another explanation. 

She grabs a shirt from her dresser and tugs it on. She almost makes him leave right then, but then she will not hear what he’ll say next. “I promise, she doesn’t suspect a thing.” 

Was the clueless ‘she’ supposed to be her? Or, maybe the ‘she’ was the woman he wore the ring for, and he was talking with a completely different girl. She grabs his jeans off her floor and finds his shirt, too. She sets it down and then sits at the edge of her bed, crossing one of her legs over the other. 

“Yeah, alright. I miss you, too,” he says and starts walking towards her bedroom door. 

Arya tries to stop glaring at her knees. 

“Sorry about that.” 

“Who was that?” She asks, trying not to sound angry. 

“It’s complicated… she’s my…” he grimaces, probably trying to find a delicate way to phrase that he’s using Arya to cheat on someone. Or, two someones based on his phone call. It’s more common among some of her coworkers than she’d like to admit, but she didn’t believe that _Gendry_ would be a cheater. “My sister,” he finally lies. 

Arya lets out a huff of laughter. “I think Shireen might be a little too hungover to hold a conversation right now, but good try,” she rolls her eyes and reaches for his shirt. Not to mention he was talking to a _Mya_ , too. That couldn’t even be a nickname for her. She knew Shireen only had one sibling, and he was standing right in front of her. 

“No… um, she-- she’s kind of my sister. She’s not Shireen,” he says. “We just--” Arya lets out a laugh and stands. How stupid does he think she is?

“Great, thanks for clarifying. If she is your sister, I really don’t want to know why you’d want to see her in a red dress. You can go now.” She shoves his clothes into his arms.

“Arya, just listen,” he starts. 

“You can call me Dr. Stark, _Dr. Waters_.” He lets out a deep sigh and tugs his jeans on. 

“You really don’t know how to listen, huh? That must be a trait you got from growing up rich.”

“Gods, you’re an asshole,” she hisses and tosses his jacket at him. 

“You’re an asshole, too. Do you know that?” She’s sure he’ll rip the sleeves off his jacket the way he yanks it on, but all she can do is fume. 

He had another date lined up right after he got done with her, and he was going to call her an asshole. The fucking nerve of him.

“I’ve got a surgery to get to in a few hours, so get out.” 

“Don’t worry, Dr. Stark. I’m leaving.” 


	2. out like a light

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> arya and gendry meet lyanna and shireen's baby and are given a huge responsibility

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tw: talk of car crash and major character deaths! i'm so sorry if you are attached to shireen and lyanna if it makes you feel any better i am also sad about it

_You leave me up tight_   
_Strung up like a kite_   
_Dumb, wicked, and white_   
_Love me in spite_   
_If I betray our lonely nights spent out like a light_   
_With no kiss goodnight_   
_Would we ever fight when I'm away?_

_Out Like a Light ~ The Honeysticks_

Arya looks up at her brother Jon. She technically needs to call him Dr. Snow, since he is an Attending. However, after he asks her to find Dr. Waters just to tell him that he _might_ need him later and that if he does, he’ll page him, Arya can’t stop herself from rolling her eyes. She has been able to remain professional with Waters when necessary, but she’s convinced that her brother chose Dr. Waters just to spite her. 

“I’m just worried that if you don’t let him know, he won’t be listening for his pager.” 

Arya raises her eyebrows. That’s a big part of his job. 

“Because he’ll probably be using the on-call room for a hookup,” he teases. Arya scowls at her brother. 

“That’s only on TV shows, Jon. That doesn’t actually happen.” 

“It could happen knowing him. You did say he scheduled a date right in front of you.”

“You only wish that people would actually hook up in the oncall room because you hope that maybe you’ll be in there with Targaryen one day and she’ll be so overcome with her feelings that she’ll be like _Oh, Jon_ —” 

“Oh, shut up! Go find Waters,” Jon says. “And, get me coffee while you’re at it.” 

Arya sticks her tongue out. 

“This is a professional environment, Dr. Stark,” he teases. 

Arya gets Jon’s coffee first. She hopes it goes cold while she’s looking for Waters as payback. 

“Waters.” She stands in front of him and crosses her arms. 

He tucks his clipboard beneath his arms. “Stark.”

“Dr. Snow has requested that you stay alert in case he needs to page you for a surgery later.” 

“Why can’t you do the surgery?” Waters crosses his arms, too, and leans against the wall. 

“Because you’re the patient’s primary physician. You know the case better than I do.” 

“Maybe, it’s because I listen so well. I’m still waiting on you to pick up that skill.” 

Arya scowls at him. 

“Tell him I’ll scrub in as long as you don’t have any direct contact with my patient while he’s awake.” 

“You do realize that it makes no difference to me if you scrub in or not? I’m only asking because Snow made me.” 

“You said it yourself. I’m the patient’s primary physician. I think his parents would prefer that I’m his surgeon, and not you.” 

“It must be your charm,” she scoffs and pushes past him. 

* * *

"Hi," Lyanna answers on the other line. 

"Hi," Arya responds. "How's Baby Moratheon?"

"Baby Moratheon is good. He's feeling very kicky this evening, usually he decides to do his kickboxing practice with my internal organs first thing in the morning, so I guess it's a good change of pace."

"He! You called Baby Moratheon 'he’!" 

Arya can practically hear Lyanna roll her eyes. "I don't know if he's a boy, but Shireen said that we were going to hurt his feelings if we kept calling him an 'it,' so we compromised. Shireen calls the baby ‘she’. Also, I’d just like to add that I find your interest in my unborn baby’s genitals deeply concerning.”

"I’m just curious! I want to meet the baby! Any hint to his name yet, then?"

"Bug off, you leech! You'll find out his name when Baby Moratheon is born just like everybody else."

* * *

Arya nearly throws her phone across the room when it rings. Her one, _one_ , night that she wasn’t working or on-call, and she’s woken up at 2:30 in the morning by a phone call. But then she sees that it’s Shireen and it’s the third incoming call, so she answers.

“Are you okay?” Shireen lets out a relieved breath on the other line. 

“Yes! I’m great, actually. I’m a mom!” 

Arya grins. Lyanna wasn’t due for at least another week, but it sounds like the baby was getting impatient. 

“Oh my gods, Shireen that’s awesome!” 

“It is. She’s perfect. You need to come meet her.” 

Arya can’t even be upset about being woken up when Shireen asks if she wants to go to the hospital to see the baby, because, of course, Arya wants to see the baby. She rubs her eyes and brushes her teeth before quickly pulling on some clothes and searching out her keys. She almost forgets the small wolf plushie sitting on her dresser, but grabs it before she leaves her apartment. 

She drives to the hospital and can’t stop the grin that keeps covering her face. She can’t wait to hold her and then spoil her when she gets to spend time with her and see her first smile. 

It feels as if Arya hits every red light on the way. 

* * *

Shireen texts her the room number, and Arya heads inside and into the elevator. Her heart feels like it’s stuck in her throat. She can’t think of another time where she was this excited, and she wrings her hands. 

The elevator finally dings, and Arya rushes out. She nearly collides with Waters. They stare at each other for a moment, and Arya just apologizes so she can get past and to the new baby faster. 

“It's fine. Just be more careful,” he says. 

“Right,” Arya nods and steps around him. To her dismay, he starts walking the same direction. “Are you here to see the baby?” she asks, and he almost smiles.

“Yeah, I haven't seen her yet, but I've got a break right now so I’m gonna go meet her.”

“Nice.”

“Yes.”

They keep walking down the hallway and Arya feels so awkward being near him while she’s not wearing her scrubs. Being together at work has been annoying and awkward, but this is borderline hanging out. Arya will not have it. 

She turns right, cutting Waters off, but doesn’t apologize for it this time. She wants to see the baby, and she wants to hold her first. She’s above outrunning him, but not above cutting him off.

She knocks on the door and doesn’t waste any time when she’s told she can come in, since Waters has already caught up. She washes her hands while Shireen wraps her in a tight hug. 

Arya smiles and grabs a few paper towels before turning and hugging her back. “Congratulations,” she says and smiles so wide her cheeks start to hurt.

“Oh, I’m fine. Just ignore me. I just pushed out a baby over here,” Lyanna teases from the bed. Arya grins wider and walks forward to wrap an arm around Lyanna’s shoulders. Waters has just finished washing his hands. Perfect.

"I brought this for her," Arya says and sets the small wolf on the bed by Lyanna, who grins. Arya sits down in the chair by Lyanna and peers at the little bundle in her arms. 

“Do you wanna hold her?”

“Lyanna, I think you've read my mind.”

Lyanna grins and passes her daughter to Arya. 

Arya nearly melts when she sees the baby’s perfect face. She’s so tiny. 

“What’s her name?” Waters interrupts their moment. 

Lyanna smiles at the baby. “Cassana Dacey Baratheon-Mormont. It’s a bit of a mouthful. So, Cass for short,” Lyanna says.

“That’s perfect,” Arya smiles but can’t look away from the little baby in her arms. A perfect name for a perfect baby. 

“Alright, I’ve gotta get back to work, so I’d like to hold my niece before then.” 

Arya scowls. “I just got her.” 

“And you’ll have after I get back to work to hold her again, so hand her over.” 

She has no problem sharing Cass with anyone (at least it was easy to think that) but the fact that it’s _Waters_ just ruins it. 

Shireen takes Cass and gently passes him to Waters. 

“She’s gorgeous, you guys,” he smiles. 

This is probably the most Arya has ever seen him smile away from one of his patients. Lyanna and Shireen beam. 

“We know,” Lyanna teases. 

“And, we also have something we’d like to tell you both,” Shireen says and sits on the edge of Lyanna’s bed. Lyanna lays a hand on her shoulder. “We’ve been discussing who we want her godparents to be, and we’ve made our decision.”

Arya glances at Waters. _Please, Gods, not him, too._

She wants to be Cass’s Godmother. She will be wonderful. She will be a kickass Godmother. 

Even if Waters is her co-Godparent. 

So, if having to put up with Waters every once in a while is the price she has to pay, then so be it. It’s not like they’d really need to interact anymore than usual outside of events with Cass, anyway. 

“You two are well-set in your careers, clearly good with and love kids, and you’re our favorite people.” 

“Awe, stop with the flattery, you guys,” Arya grins and sees the smallest blush on Waters's cheeks. 

“Well, I’m glad you chose me,” he says. “I already love her,” he grins at Cass as she wraps her hand around his pinky. “Alright, Stark, you can have her back,” he groans and sets Cass back in her arms. He gives Shireen another hug and pats Lyanna on the shoulder. 

* * *

“Dr. Waters, do you care to assist today?” 

Waters looks at Arya with her crossed arms standing beside Dr. Targaryen. She wants him to know that _she_ would not care for him to assist. They may be Godparents together now, but they certainly have not become amiable. He’s still an asshole.

“I don’t think that Dr. Stark and I are very compatible--”

“You two may have gotten drunk and ruined a perfectly good relationship between colleagues, but that’s not a valid reason to not do your jobs.” 

Waters looks at Arya and raises an eyebrow. She had told Jon about Waters and his infidelity, and she didn’t technically forbid him from telling anyone. But still, she wants to pummel her brother for taking it upon himself to tell _Dr. Targaryen_ , of all people. 

“I thought maybe you could keep things professional, but blabbing about it to our colleagues is fine, too.” Waters clenches his jaw and lets out a huff of breath. 

“I didn’t--” 

“I don’t want to hear anymore of it! There’s a kid in there that needs surgery and if either of you so much as stick one toe out of line,” Dr. Targaryen hisses. “You’re not scrubbing in with me ever again. Keep your personal life out of my OR.”

* * *

“If you play Baby Shark one more time I’m gonna throw myself out of this moving car,” Waters threatens. 

Lyanna turns back to look at them and furrows her eyebrows. “You’re pediatricians. Aren’t you used to listening to kid’s music by now?”

Arya laughs beside Waters and Cass’s car seat. “Oh, Gods, no. We usually don’t get stuck listening to this crap.”

“Language, please,” Shireen berates from the driver’s seat. “But seriously, you don’t want us to turn her music off.”

“Wanna bet?” Gendry asks. 

“Okay, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

Lyanna turns the volume button down on the radio, and the car is silent for almost an entire minute before Cass starts screaming. Arya stares at the red-faced Cass for a moment before she tries to distract her with the small wolf plushie, but Cass pushes the toy out of her face. Waters tries to shake the soft rattle hanging down from her car seat, but Cass only keeps screaming. 

Lyanna just laughs up front. “She tried to warn you guys.” 

“Turn the music back on,” Waters begs, but Shireen shakes her head. 

“No, it’s way too late now. You just have to deal with it until we get home.”

Arya is certain Cass has given everyone in the car a migraine by the time they make it into Shireen and Lyanna’s driveway. Arya and Waters barrel out of the backseat of Shireen’s Jeep and start unloading the birthday decorations for Cass’s first birthday to avoid having to soothe her anymore. 

Lyanna reaches in and unclips Cass from the car seat who calms down after Lyanna walks around the yard with her for a few minutes. “Can you make sure the cake is thawed, Shy?” Shireen nods and goes into their house while Arya starts anchoring the balloons. 

“Anguy! You were supposed to have this set up an hour ago!” Lyanna grumbles as Anguy leans against the partially inflated bounce house. 

“Calm down, dude, it’s almost done,” he promises. 

Arya looks at the lumpy base of the bounce house. It’s definitely not almost done. 

“Yeah, I’m sure it is.” Lyanna passes Cass off to Waters and pulls on Anguy’s arms to make him stand. “Get up! People are supposed to be here in half an hour!” 

“Chill… what do you need a bounce house for anyway, Lyanna? Your kid can’t even walk, yet.” 

Waters snorts and turns away from Lyanna’s wrath. 

“Are you high?” 

Anguy chuckles. “Oh, yeah, forsure.” 

“We don’t have time for this! Remind me to never hire you again.” Lyanna rubs her hands on her temples. 

Waters tosses Cass up in the air and she giggles, pulling Lyanna away from Anguy. 

“Gendry, don’t. She’s been puking like crazy,” Lyanna warns. 

“But she loves it,” he says. He tosses her again. “Look.” Cass giggles again and Waters smiles. 

“Suit yourself,” Lyanna mumbles and grabs the last box from the back of the car. She carries the box over to Arya. Arya grabs it and complies when Lyanna asks her to take it inside to Shireen. 

“Lyanna seems a little stressed,” Arya teases and sets the box on the counter. 

Shireen smiles. “She gets very worked up about parties, but it always pays off. Cass is going to have the best first birthday in town!” She boasts and pulls out the vegetable tray. 

Arya glances out the window at just the right moment. Waters tosses Cass in the air again, and she pukes all over him. Arya starts cackling and Shireen peers out the window. 

“Seriously, Gendry? What did I tell you?” Lyanna’s muffled voice says. “Go get cleaned up.” 

Waters walks inside with a grimace on his face and wordlessly hands Cass to Arya. 

“There’s probably something of dad’s in the guest room,” Shireen says and sets up some crackers on a plate. 

“Thanks,” Waters mumbles and steps out of the kitchen. 

“Don’t worry, Cass, you’re not the first girl to throw up on Uncle Gendry,” Arya coos. 

“I heard that,” Waters calls from the stairs. Arya stifles a laugh. 

“What’s wrong with my brother?” Shireen asks and crosses her arms. 

“Work rivalry,” Arya spits out and clears her throat. She had never told Shireen or Lyanna about their hookup, and since Shireen had never mentioned it, Arya could only hope Waters never said anything, either. 

“You guys can’t stand to be in the same room because of a work rivalry?”

“We can be in the same room! We rode in the back of your car the whole way here!” Arya argues. 

“Right.” Shireen rolls her eyes. “Anyway, Lyanna and I started this new yoga class, and the instructor,” Shireen pauses for effect, “is hot. And flexible. I really think that you want her number.” It sounds like a great offer--even if it would be really weird to get a yoga instructor’s phone number without wanting to take yoga lessons--but Arya needs to focus on passing her Boards exam. 

“Thanks, but, now isn’t really the best time for me to be dating.” 

“You always say that.” 

“And it’s true every time!” 

“Fine, but I promise you’re really missing out. Lyanna and I are basically in love with her.” Waters comes back downstairs--puke-free--and reaches his hand out for Arya to give Cass back. 

“Use your words.” 

“Can I please have Cass back?”

“I hope she throws up on you again,” Arya smirks and hands Cass to him. 

“Yeah, well, I hope... “

“Don’t strain yourself too much,” she says and tilts her head at him. 

“Whatever. I’m gonna finish helping Lyanna.” 

* * *

“We’re about to have baby number six!” Beth says and rests her hand on her stomach. “Cley is such a saint, he makes it so easy.” 

“Oh, wow. Six, huh?” 

Beth nods. 

Arya came from a big family, with six siblings herself, but her parents also had help from a nanny and maids and cooks. She couldn’t imagine having six or seven kids with just two people raising them and taking care of the entire house. 

“So, how long have you lived in the neighborhood?” 

“Probably about eight years, when we found out we were having our first.” 

Arya pauses for a moment. Six children in eight years? Her mother had at least fourteen years for five kids, and then two of her brothers were adopted. Beth had to be a superhuman or something. She had only seen a few people after childbirth but the results looked pretty painful to have another five babies in seven years.

“So, how many kids do you have?” 

“Oh, none,” Arya says. “Yet.” She does want kids someday--probably not six of them within seven years--but she doesn’t have the time right now. 

“Well, you might want to get started soon! You won't be young forever!” Beth says and Arya isn’t really sure if she’s kidding or not. 

“Arya, I need your help patching the bounce house, please. Anguy fucked it up and Lyanna’s gonna freak if she sees.” 

Beth smiles and covers the ears of the small child in her lap. “Language, please,” she says and gives Waters a sweet smile. 

Waters doesn’t acknowledge Beth nor does he give Arya a chance to even respond before he goes into Shireen and Lyanna’s house. 

“Is that your husband?” Beth asks, brightly. 

“Uh, no.” Arya sets her lemonade on her seat and follows Waters into the house. 

It seems like parents are a lot nosier when they don’t trust you with saving their child’s life and just see you as another parent. She walks into their garage and watches Waters search the shelves. 

He hands her the patch and looks for superglue. He grabs the small tube he finds and walks back out of the garage. Arya rolls her eyes and follows him outside. 

He doesn’t say anything as he holds his hand out for the patch when he reaches the leaking tear of the bounce house. 

“Did you really need my help or did you just want me to be miserable, too? I know parties aren’t really your thing, but Gods.” 

“I need you to hold the patch up, so I can put glue on it,” he responds, gruffly. 

Arya scoffs. “Maybe you should try being nice to the guests and then you’ll actually enjoy yourself.” 

“I’m good.” Waters holds the patch out to her. “Hold it by the edges.” 

She grabs it back. “Beth is sweet. You should apologize to her.” 

“For what?”

“For saying ‘fuck’ in front of her two year old.”

Waters shrugs. “She’ll learn the word, eventually.” 

“You’re a dick.” 

“So I’ve heard. At least I don’t cuss in front of the kids at work.” 

“That’s the bare minimum.” 

“Patch.” Arya lets go of it when Waters grabs the edges. He turns it around and sticks it to the hole on the bounce house. “I hope it costs Anguy a lot to fix my shitty patchwork.” 

Arya rolls her eyes and rejoins the party. 

* * *

“Are you Jon’s little sister?” A man holding a squirming little boy asks. 

“Yes. I’m Arya.” 

“Nice to meet you, I’m Samwell! We were good friends when we were residents. You look so much like him.” 

Arya smiles. “Samwell! I’ve heard all about you. This must be little Sam.” 

Samwell nods. “Yes, and that’s my wife, Gilly, over there.” 

“I’ve heard a lot about Gilly, too.” 

Samwell grins. “I haven’t seen Jon in ages, I’ll have to call him up later.”

“Did you used to work at Riverrun?” 

“Oh, yes, that was before your time, though. I transferred to Hornvale.” 

“Hornvale? That’s a bit of a drive from here.” 

“It’s only ten more minutes or so. They had a better position, so I had to take it while I had the chance.” 

“Oh, yeah. I get you. What’s your specialty?”

“I’m a General surgeon. What about you?”

“Peds.” 

“That’s high stress. Does Jon still do trauma?”

“He’s the head of it now, actually. And, I’m sure you deal with your fair share of high stress cases, too.” 

“Oh, definitely, but parents are the worst to deal with.” 

Arya laughs. “But you’re a parent.” 

“And I pity you if you are ever the one to perform surgery on my boy. So, what about Dr. Targaryen? Does Jon still have a huge crush on her?” 

Arya laughs again. 

* * *

“Happy Birthday, Cass,” Arya grins and sets the little bag in front of her. Cass pulls the tissue paper out of the top and tries to put it into her mouth but Shireen blocks it with her hand. 

“Not food,” she says. 

Lyanna peers into the small gift bag. “Did you seriously get my twelve month old a fifty dollar Starbucks gift card?”

Arya shrugs. “The gift card is more for you and Shireen. The tissue paper and bag is Cass’s gift.” 

* * *

“Good work today, Stark. I’m proud of you. You panicked for a second, but you made the right choice.” 

Arya smiles as Dr. Targaryen gives her a quick pat on the shoulder. 

“Alright, let’s get going. I need to get home to my boys.” 

Arya takes a minute to absorb that Dr. Targaryen wants to walk all the way to the timeclock with her. 

“How old are your boys now?”

“Five. They’re starting kindergarten in a few weeks,” Dr. Targaryen grins. 

“Oh, that’s so exciting.”

“Oh, yeah. I’ve been teaching them how to write their names, and now I think I have a name written on everything in our house,” she sighs. 

“At least they’re practicing,” Arya teases and gets a small smile. 

“I guess that’s one way to look at the amount of painting we’ll have to do before we move next summer,” she says. 

“Oh, I had no idea you were moving.” 

“Yeah, we’re going to move closer to my mother.” 

“Oh, well, that’s great for you.” 

“And for you. When I leave my position opens up, and I get to recommend someone.” 

Arya pauses. Her or Waters. 

Dr. Targaryen punches her code into the timeclock. Before Arya can start building her case for why she is the better choice over Waters, her phone starts ringing. Arya clocks out quickly when Dr. Targaryen finishes.

“Well, see you later, Dr. Stark,” she says. Arya nods and gives her a small wave as she pulls out her ringing cell phone. 

“Hey, Lyanna.”

“Is this Arya Stark?”

* * *

Arya wipes her palms down the front of her scrubs before she frantically presses buttons in the elevator. Gendry is still here. He clocked in an hour before Arya clocked out. She just needed to find him. 

There has to be a mistake. It couldn’t have been Lyanna’s car. Or maybe it is Lyanna’s, but there’s no way Shireen or Lyanna had been it. It just isn’t true. 

But Gendry left his personal phone off while he worked, and if it is true, the only way he will know before it’s on the morning news will be if Arya tells him. He’s probably started his rounds by now, but maybe Arya can catch him in the hallway. 

The sooner she finds him and gets to the police station, the sooner they will know it was just a mistake. 

“Gendry!”

He turns at his name. Arya hasn’t called him Gendry in a very long time. 

“Arya?” He drops his clipboard and grabs her shoulders. “Arya, are you alright?” 

She wipes her eyes and shakes her head. “No. Gendry, something happened.” She has to take a shaky breath.

“What?” 

She takes another shaky breath. 

“Arya, _what_?” 

“It’s Shireen and Lyanna. I don’t— I don’t know everything, but it’s bad. An officer called me from Lyanna’s phone.”

“Okay,” he reaches for Arya’s hands. “Where are they?”

“The officer told me to go to the police station.”

Gendry nods. “Call a cab. I’m going to Dondarrion to tell him I need to leave. Stay here until I get back,” he says. Arya nods and leans against the wall. She calls a cab to pick them up and then she slides down the wall to sit on the floor. She doesn’t want to cry at work, but she can’t help it. 

* * *

“I’ll need numbers for the next of kin. Would either of you have those?”

“Me,” Gendry says. “I’m Shireen’s brother. We’re their daughter’s Godparents.” 

“You said the car flipped?” Arya asks. 

Officer Tarth looks away from her. “I can call you back in tomorrow if this is too hard.” 

“Cass,” Arya says. “Their daughter. Was she in the car?”

“No, she was with her babysitter. She’s going to stay with child services for the night.” Arya nods. 

Gendry clasps his hands together. His knuckles start to turn white. Arya’s bottom lip quivers a little, and she sets her hand on Gendry’s wrist. He relaxes his hold. 

“I can get you our father’s number,” Gendry says. 

“Thank you.” 

“When can we see Cass?” Gendry asks. 

“Child services can’t do anything until the morning. I suggest you both go home and get some rest and contact Child Services in the morning. Here’s my card if you guys can think of anything else I’ll need to know.”

Gendry grabs the card. “Thank you. Come on, Arya.” 

Arya stands up and follows him. 

It has to be a mistake. Shireen and Lyanna weren’t in that car. 

* * *

Arya uses one of her sick days. She doesn’t check her phone for any other messages before she drives over to Shireen and Lyanna’s house. She would need to meet with their lawyer, and then try to get Cass as soon as she could. She didn’t want to waste any time this morning having to go over the events of last night over and over again with everyone Shireen and Lyanna knew. It took the night for the shock to really sink in, and Arya had spent most of her night crying, but she needs to be strong for Cass now. 

She calls their lawyer from Lyanna’s phone on her drive over and Ms. Naath agrees to meet with them within the hour. 

She calls Gendry next, and he tells her he’ll be on his way soon. 

She isn’t really sure what to do while she’s waiting in their house, so she makes some tea to pass the time. The white kitchen used to look so beautiful to Arya, but now it just looked empty without them in it. 

Arya waters their plants next, and then she unloads their dishwasher. That kills a lot of time since she doesn’t know where most of their stuff belongs and has to open all of the baby-proofed cabinets to find out. 

She will do anything to avoid having to make the phone calls. 

Gendry comes in a little while later, and he sits at the island with her with their hot cups of tea. The only sound breaking their silence is the occasional scrape of a spoon on their glasses. 

Then Ms. Naath arrives, and Arya greets her at the door. 

“I’m terribly sorry about Shireen and Lyanna,” Ms. Naath says as she follows Arya to a set of couches in the living room with her briefcase. “This must be a very difficult time for you.” She gives them a small smile full of pity. 

Gendry clenches his jaw and stares at the grain pattern on Shireen and Lyanna’s coffee table. 

“It’s hard,” Arya says. 

Ms. Naath nods. “I understand. You must have questions.”

Arya nods. “Cass. When can we see Cass?”

“I talked to CPS this morning and the foster family from last night will bring her to CPS, where Cassana will be picked up and brought back here.” 

“And we’ll,” Arya motions to herself and Gendry, “do that, right?”

“Yes, as her Godparents, you were both named to take care of Cassana if something should happen to them. CPS believes she will adjust best in her own environment, so you will remain in the house until CPS feels she can move into a different home.” 

“Wait, wait, wait can we back up?” 

Ms. Naath nods. 

“So this means we have Cass?”

“First, it will have to be approved by a judge, but yes.”

“And, then we’ll live here? Together?”

“Yes. This might not be how you wanted to start a family, but--”

“No, no, no. We’re not together,” Arya shakes her head. 

The doorbell rings. 

“I’ll answer it,” Ms. Naath says. “I’m sure it’s your caseworker. I know this is overwhelming. You can say no, but I will need a response as soon as you both decide.” She leaves the room and Arya leans forward to rest her forehead on her knees. She had never really entertained the idea that anything bad could happen to Shireen or Lyanna, and definitely hadn’t thought about somehow having to live in the same house as Gendry Waters and raise Cass without any help from her two best friends. 

She takes a deep breath and turns her head to peer at Gendry, who is still stoically staring at the table. She doesn’t think he’s even blinking. Arya sits back up and runs her fingers through her hair. 

Ms. Naath walks back into the room with an older woman who introduces herself as Ravella Smallwood, the caseworker assigned to Cass. 

Ms. Naath sits back down with Ms. Smallwood at her side. “If you choose to take care of Cassana, I will just need to set up a court hearing where you will be granted temporary custody and we can go from there.”

“Yes, okay, we will do it.”

“We?” Gendry says his first word since Ms. Naath arrived. 

Arya furrows her eyebrows at him. “They named us. Together.”

He blinks at her. 

Arya turns to Ms. Naath. He told Shireen and Lyanna that he would be Cass’s Godfather, but now he wasn’t willing to step up for it? “What if just one of us wanted to apply for legal guardianship?”

Ms. Smallwood nods. “Oh, okay, well—“

“Okay, no, wait up, I never said I didn’t want—“

“Well, you definitely implied—“

“Maybe if you would let me finish speaking for once—“

“Maybe I would if I wasn’t scared your next words will be lies—“

“ _Enough_.” Ms. Smallwood snaps. She glares at the both of them before clearing her throat and folding her hands back in her lap. “Arguing is not going to create a smooth and healthy transition for Cassana. If you two can’t have a civil conversation--or even stand to be in the same room as one another--you will not be granted temporary custody. Now, as I was saying, if you decide that only one of you will raise Cassana, it’s the same process. You will apply for temporary custody. I’m not expecting you both to decide right now, but I need a decision quickly. Cassana needs to come home so she can acclimate sooner.”

“I understand,” Arya and Gendry both say at the same time. They look at each other for just a moment, but quickly turn their attention back to Ms. Naath and Ms. Smallwood. 

“As for the finances, their savings should cover the house, but that’s about it. You're both advised to move in here full time in the interim.” 

_For Cass_ , Arya has to remind herself. _And Shireen and Lyanna. It’s what they wanted._

“Alright, I’m going to leave both our numbers with some forms I will need you to fill out,” Ms. Smallwood says and pulls a manila folder out of her bag to set on the table. “And in a few hours I will meet you at CPS to pick Cass up.”

“Expect a phone call from me in the morning.” Ms. Naath says. “Please make your decision by then, and if you choose to take Cass, I will get you in front of the judge Monday morning.” 

“Thank you, Ms. Naath,” Gendry says and reaches out a hand for a handshake. He turns. “Thank you, as well, Ms. Smallwood.” 

“Yes, thank you. You’ve both been very helpful,” Arya says. 

“Good. We want what’s best for Cassana,” Ms. Smallwood says. Gendry walks them to the door and Arya reaches for the folder. She almost laughs when she sees that Ms. Smallwood stuck a parenting book in the folder. _Why the Way You Talk To Your Partner Matters--Raising Your Kids Without Raising Your Voice_

Arya pushes the book aside and looks for a pen. 

* * *

Arya flicks on the little nightlight by the door of Cass’s room. Little golden stars dance around the ceiling and walls. Arya sits down in the center of the room right in front of the crib and hugs her knees to her chest. 

Cass just turned one a few months ago, she wouldn’t know why her parents aren’t around or why Arya and Gendry are suddenly with her all the time. 

As much as Arya loves children, she doesn’t know the first thing about taking care of them full-time. The longest she ever watched her nephew alone was only four days, more than three years ago. Still, she couldn’t bear the thought of Cass moving in with completely new people in a completely new home when Shireen and Lyanna wanted Arya and Gendry to raise her in case something happened to them. 

Gendry knocks on the open door frame. Arya quickly wipes her eyes and turns to look at him. 

“Ms. Smallwood called. We’re going to get Cass at three and then we’ll talk some more about moving forward with the adoption with Ms. Naath tomorrow.”

“Okay. Thank you for letting me know.”

“‘Course.” He steps inside the room and sits down in the rocking chair by Cass’s empty crib. 

“Shireen and I were adopted. We’re actually cousins,” he says. Arya tilts her head and looks at him. She had never known him to willingly offer up something as personal as that. 

“She never told me.”

“It’s not our favorite subject,” he says. “Our fathers were brothers, and they were both real pieces of work. I never met my biological father, but I lived with Shireen and Stannis, Shireen’s biological father, for a while and he was pretty fucked up—to say the least—so he lost custody. His best friend adopted us. His wife doted on the both of us and they had a few sons, but they had all moved out or passed away by the time Davos took us in so we only saw them a few times a year.” 

She had picked up on the different last names between Shireen and Gendry and their parents, but she never really dwelled on it since the same thing happened in her own family. 

“I didn’t know at all. She must’ve said something over the years.” Arya furrows her eyebrows and runs her fingers through the rug. She can’t believe she never knew that about Shireen’s past. 

“No. She hated talking about it, so I’m sure she never said anything. I don’t even know how much she would have told Lyanna.”

“Thank you for sharing that.”

“I know it will be different with Cass since we both know how much Shireen and Lyanna love her, but I just thought maybe I should tell you. I had to call him last night to tell him. And our mother. It was fucking horrible.” 

Arya stares at her phone on the floor beside her. Every few minutes it pings with a message or a call, but Arya can’t make herself respond to any. She didn’t want to have to admit out loud that her best friends were dead.

He rubs the back of his neck and stands. He walks towards the door but pauses before he steps into the hallway. “We need to go pick up Cass. I want her to know how much they love her. We need to make sure we tell her everyday.” 


	3. clairvoyant

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the adjustment period

_You might hate my words but you know that I'm right_

_You know that I'm right_

_This is your life, there's no way to run from it_  
_The doubt in your brain, or the pain in your stomach_  
_I only have the one complaint at the moment_  
_Don't paint me black when I used to be golden_

_Clairvoyant ~ The Story So Far_

“We need to teach her to self-soothe,” Arya says. “I just read it. Let’s give her a minute.” 

Waters looks at her like she has three heads. “No, I’m not gonna listen to her cry. She’s hungry,” he says and picks her up. 

“Can you please listen to what I say? Just once?” she hisses. 

“Yeah, I will when Cass isn’t screaming her head off,” he shoots back. 

Arya shakes her hands behind his neck when he turns around. The fantasy of strangling him has been the only thing that makes her feel better when he has to be a dick this morning. She searches the cabinets in the kitchen for the food processor and washes a few carrots. Shireen had told her they were weaning her off of her formula a few months ago and Arya wishes she would still take a bottle. It would be much easier than trying to make an edible mush for her. 

Waters bounces Cass up and down on his hip while Arya tries to mash the carrots for her. 

“You’ve got to hurry up with that before Ms. Smallwood comes and takes her back,” Gendry groans. 

Arya rolls her eyes and pulls on the silverware drawer. “I’m sure you’d love that wouldn’t you,” she says and slams her hand against the drawer when it doesn’t budge. She opened it fine just this morning. 

“I know you want to do everything in the baby books, but it’s the first day. Just get her fed.” 

“You don’t know anything about me, so maybe let’s focus on feeding Cass and not everything you think I’m doing wrong, huh?” 

“I know you can’t open that drawer.” 

“Then maybe you can help!” She steps away from the drawer and Waters hands her the screaming Cass. “Push in, then pull the lever up.” 

“Thank you,” Arya spits and buckles Cass into her high chair. 

She scoops some of the carrots into a bowl and takes the baby spoon from Waters’s hand. 

“Okay, Cass, I think I’ve got something here,” she coos and sits in front of the highchair. She spoons some of the carrots and tries to feed them to Cass, but she turns her head and starts to cry again. “Come on, Cass, just try it!” 

Arya finally gets a bit of the food in her mouth, but Cass spits it out. 

Waters starts opening cabinets and grabs a box of Cheerios. He pours some on Cass’s tray, who stops fussing as soon as she eats one. 

Waters stares at Arya for a moment. “Do you really think we’re the best thing for her? We work fourteen hours a day. When are we gonna find the time to teach her to self-soothe or make her homemade baby food that she’ll never eat?”

Arya slams the bowl of carrots down on the counter and leaves the room. 

* * *

“Okay, I think she’s sleeping,” Arya whispers. 

“We should probably go to bed, too, then. Take the guest room.”

“Where will you sleep?” 

“The pull-out.” 

“We can flip a coin for the guest room. It’s fair that way.” 

“I’m way too tired for that. I’m fine on the pull-out couch, really. Let’s just get some sleep.” 

* * *

“Maybe the two of us can’t do this,” Waters spits as he gives up trying to wrestle the shoes on Cass’s feet. 

“It’s just her shoes,” Arya says. “Give them to me.” 

Waters huffs out a breath and hands her the sandals. 

Shireen and Lyanna always talked about how she had always been such a mellow baby, but Cass has been anything but for the last few days. 

Arya has tried making phone calls to Lyanna’s family while Waters calls his and Shireen’s family every time Cass falls asleep. But Cass never sleeps for very long, so Arya and Waters barely have any time to sleep themselves. Arya doesn’t think she’s slept for more than eight hours total since they picked up Cass. 

“We can do this,” she assures.

Waters shakes his head. “I don’t know how to raise a kid. You’re not exactly great at it, either.” 

“Hey!” 

“The only thing we’ve gotten her to eat for four days is Cheerios and Goldfish, neither of us can get her to sleep, and we haven’t been to work in five days!”

“Stop yelling, you’re going to upset her,” Arya says and gives up on the shoes. She hugs Cass close to her chest.

“There’s got to be a better option than us.” 

Arya sighs. She wants to honor Lyanna and Shireen’s wishes, but if Waters isn’t willing to help her, Arya doesn’t know if she can. 

“Fine, we can scope out some of their family, later. But just remember that out of everyone, they picked us.” 

“I know they picked us. But, maybe they shouldn’t have.”

“Just go away,” Arya says. “Please.” 

Waters leaves Cass’s bedroom. Arya picks up the little wolf plushie out of Cass’s crib. It was the first thing she gave her. 

* * *

The service is painful. Arya stares at the blades of grass prodding her feet through her sandals for most of it while she softly bounces Cass on her leg. She doesn’t want to cry, especially not with Cass in her arms, so she tries not to focus too much on the stories Lyanna and Shireen’s friends tell. Davos’s speech about Shireen is the worst one and Arya pinches her leg to keep herself from crying. 

Rickon hands her a tissue before he goes up to tell a story about Lyanna from when the three of them were younger, anyway.

* * *

“Alysanne is one of Lyanna’s sisters,” Arya says. “She has two kids.” 

* * *

“Hey, do not climb on that!” Alysanne shouts to her daughter while she tries to soothe her two year old son. “If you break your arm the only thing you’ll get from me is an ‘I told you so.’”

* * *

“Renly is Shireen’s and my biological uncle,” Waters says. “He definitely has the means to take care of Cass.” 

* * *

“I had to come home early from Volantis for this. I’ll be in Lys in two weeks, and if I have to come home early from that, too, I might have to push my trip to Meereen back for next summer,” Renly complains. "I can only handle so much disappointment, you know?"

* * *

“Jeor is Lyanna’s grandfather,” Arya says. “He helped raise her and all of her sisters.” 

* * *

“I’ll be eighty-five next month.” 

Waters has to snatch Cass up before she can knock over Jeor’s oxygen tank.

* * *

“You said Lyanna had other sisters?” Waters asks from the privacy of the upstairs bathroom. He rocks his upper body a little to try to get Cass to fall asleep. 

“Yeah, she has two more, Lyra and Jorelle, but they live in Braavos. Lyanna hasn’t heard from them in years since they didn’t accept her for being gay.” 

“Assholes,” he whispers. 

Arya gives him a small smile. “What about your parents? Davos and Marya successfully raised you two and their seven boys before that.” 

“I already talked to Dad and he said he wants me to do it since Shireen picked me. They’re also getting pretty old, too. A toddler would be too much to put on them right now.” 

“Yes. You’re right.” 

“What about Renly? He seemed okay?” Waters suggests. 

“A thirteen month old in Lys? I don’t think she really belongs on his vacations.” 

Waters sighs. “You’re right.” 

* * *

“Ms. Naath called. We see the judge Monday morning at eleven,” Arya says. Waters sets the baby monitor on the couch beside her and sits down. 

“Right.”

“It’s gonna take some time to get used to her, but we’ll be okay.”

“Yeah, we’ll be okay. Shireen and Lyanna trusted us, right?” 

Arya nods. 

“To be honest, I wasn't really open to having any kids until I started working in Pediatric Surgery. And I definitely wanted to work my way up to it,” he teases a little. "But I love Cass.” 

“I love Cass, too.” She didn’t want to offer up her own silly dreams of always wanting children and a family, especially when her sister's friend used to (and maybe she still does) laugh about ‘Arya Horseface’ falling in love. But, that didn't mean that she didn't ever want those things. She wasn't going to find a husband in Waters, but she could still be a mother to Cass. The hospital daycare is incredible, so neither of them would have to be far from Cass while they work. 

The Pediatric Attending, Dr. Targaryen, had triplets a few years ago. It was a little rough for her at first because she’s a single mother, but now all of her boys are in kindergarten and think that their mommy is so cool for getting to "cut people open." That raised a red flag with their teacher before she found out that Dr. Targaryen is a surgeon. 

If Dr. Targaryen can do it alone with three kids, the two of them can definitely handle one baby. 

* * *

“I think I just heard someone knock,” Waters groans. 

“I just want to be left alone for a minute,” Arya says. “We just got her to sleep.” They had a rough morning at court after Cass cried through the hearing. Arya had been worried that they might not get custody since they couldn't calm her down, but the hearing was finished in less than five minutes. And now Arya is the legal parent of another human being. She needs time to process it, and doesn't have any extra for the guest at the door. 

The unwelcome guest rings the doorbell next. 

“If whoever that is wakes her up, I will kill them.” 

“Go answer it.” 

“You go answer it. I’m feeling extra murderous about it,” Waters says. 

Arya groans dramatically and stands. She answers the door to see four brightly smiling faces staring at her with some casserole dishes. 

“Oh, hi, what a surprise,” she says. 

Beth grins wider. “We just wanted to bring over some dinner for you guys. We know how hard it can be to cook the first few weeks.” 

“Oh, thanks. Maybe Waters will be a bit nicer about this, then,” she smiles a little.

“Waters?” Sam asks. 

“Gendry.” 

They all nod and smile politely. Arya stands in the doorway for a moment. She can’t remember the last time she got to take a shower. Her first day back to work is tomorrow, so she was planning on using the evening to get ready. Tragically, the four neighbors just keep smiling and staring at her. 

“Well, come on in,” she says. 

“Oh, how unexpected,” Beth beams and doesn’t miss a beat walking into the house.

“We hope it’s not a bad time,” Cley says. Arya gives him a polite smile. If they had really cared about the time, they probably would’ve called first. 

Waters gives Arya a scowl when he sees everyone walk in, but he still leads them into the dining room. 

“So how are you guys doing?” Sam asks. “You look tired.” 

“That would be the not sleeping,” Waters says. 

“Oh, well, good luck. You probably won’t sleep for the next ten years,” Beth says with a laugh. Arya looks to Waters. They cannot go ten years without sleeping. They are surgeons. 

“You’ll probably never get used to the kid’s music, either,” Cley says. 

Neither of them have succumbed to playing Baby Shark, yet, but it might not be the worst idea now that she’s thinking of it. She might just need to invest in some ear plugs for the two of them. 

“Seriously, don’t worry, though,” Beth says. “We’re here for you guys. Every parent struggles their first year.” 

“And we had nine months to get ready,” Gilly says. “You guys were thrown into it.”

“My two best tips are to get a sitter, right now, and you can never have enough paper towels,” Beth says. 

“And make sure you use unscented wipes,” Gilly says.

“And I know Lyanna and Shireen had their heart set on sending Cass to Big Wagon Preschool,” Sam says. 

“So you’re gonna want to make sure that you start making donations,” Gilly says. 

“Like yesterday,” Beth adds. “And make sure that you only buy dye-free Motrin.”

“And no BPAs,” Cley says. “Make sure her sippy cups and dishes don’t have those chemicals.” 

“Maybe we should write this down,” Arya whispers to Waters. He nods and stands to find a paper and pen. 

* * *

“I think we’re doing something wrong,” Arya says through a laugh and Waters groans. 

“Yeah, you think? How about you start washing Cass and not me.” 

Arya laughs at the water soaking through his shirt and turns the sprayer towards him on purpose. 

“Oh yeah, very funny,” he rolls his eyes and Arya can only laugh harder. 

She pumps some soap into her hand for Cass, but she can’t help herself when she sees the grumpy look on Waters’s face again. She smears the soap into his hair and Cass lets out a little giggle. Waters can’t help but crack a smile. 

* * *

“Okay, Cass, I can’t feed you if I don’t know what you like. You’re really stressing me out by not eating any of my food,” she says while Cass just stares at her. “Okay, I’m glad we had this conversation.” She turns down the next aisle and grabs another pack of wipes and diapers. “Woah, hey, look at that,” she says and grabs a jar of baby food. “This has a very happy baby on it, I think we ought to give this a shot.” She puts it in the cart. “I know, I know, your mama wanted you to only eat homemade foods, but you’re killing me. I think you might like it.” She grabs a few more jars. 

* * *

“Ah,” Arya sighs and sinks into the warm water. She’s usually a shower person, but since it’s Waters’s night, she wants to just relax. 

But then Waters bursts into the bathroom with a screaming Cass. Arya reaches for her towel to cover herself. “I’m naked!” 

“I know, sorry, I promise I’m not even looking at you, but Cass won’t stop screaming. She just wants you, please help,” he begs. 

Arya scowls and stands up from the tub. She pulls a robe on before she plucks Cass from Water’s arms. “Fine, but you owe me.” 

* * *

“This is the worst fucking show,” Arya whispers. 

Waters nods. 

At first, it really wasn’t too bad, but now that Arya and Waters and Cass have watched all thirteen episodes at least ten times the past few weeks, Arya cannot stand to watch it any longer. 

“I think she might be sleeping,” Waters whispers back. 

“The hockey game is on now. If we watch it on a super low volume, she won’t even know,” Arya says. Waters doesn’t even hesitate before he switches the channel. They only get to see one play before Cass notices and starts crying again. 

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” he groans and switches it back to her show. She stops crying after a few minutes of being entranced by the bright colors and music that probably induces ear-bleeding. 

* * *

“Okay, Cass, let’s try this. I’ve got to vacuum, but I know you want to be held. I saw your mama wear this a few times, so it can’t be too hard,” Arya says. She picks Cass up to put her in the small carrier strapped to her stomach, but as soon as Arya lets Cass go, the velcro comes undone and Cass falls to the floor. 

“Oh, Gods, oh, Gods,” Arya panics and expects Cass to start screaming any minute, but she only giggles and reaches her arms up for Arya to hold her again. “I’m so sorry, Cass.” 

* * *

“What about this lump on her belly button,” Arya asks. Their latest game has been finding any part of Cass that looks different than the day before and getting themselves worked up about it. Thankfully, when the two of them were together, they could usually talk one another down and stop worrying about it. 

“I’m pretty sure that’s just part of her belly button,” Waters says. “She has an outie.” 

Arya shakes her head. “It’s not part of her belly button. Where are your glasses?” 

Waters groans. “I hate wearing them out of work,” he says. 

“Well, I need you to look at it, too. I don’t want to get all worked up over it if it’s nothing.” 

“Fine,” Waters sets Cass down on her mat and leaves to find his glasses. 

He comes back a few minutes later with his glasses and looks at Cass’s belly button.

“I think it’s an umbilical hernia,” Arya says. 

“Yeah, I think you’re right. Those go away on their own.” 

“Not always,” Arya says and bites on her lip. 

“Then we’ll keep checking on it. She’s fine.” 

Arya nods a little. 

“Can I take these off now?” Waters teases and points to his glasses. Arya smiles a little. She never paid much attention to his glasses before, but she has noticed she likes when he wears them without his white coat. 

“I didn’t find any other anomalies on her while I was waiting for you to find them, so I guess that's okay.” 

* * *

“How the fuck am I supposed to fit Part D to Part C when Part C has a fucking triangle-shaped hole and Part D has a goddamn square notch?”

“Waters, that says Part D to Part _G_.”

“Seven hells,” he says. Arya hands him his glasses from the counter. He sighs and accepts them. 

“You’re lucky Cass is sleeping. If she hears the way you talk alone, I think her first sentence will mostly be swears.” 

Waters sighs again. “I know, I know. I just really hate building baby stuff.” 

“It’d be easier if you wore your reading glasses.” 

“You sound like my mom.” 

“I guess parenthood is starting to rub off on me.” 

* * *

Arya sits down with her glass (and almost empty bottle) of wine. Waters was at the grocery store with Cass and it was his night to wake up with her. She probably should have eaten dinner before she started drinking, but now she doesn’t think she should really be trusted with the stove. 

Waters walks through the door a little while later with Cass and sets down the bags of groceries on the counter. “I’m gonna make some spaghetti and see if she eats any. Do you want some?” 

“Yes. I love spaghetti,” Arya says and laughs at the bit of hair sticking up at the back of his head. “You don’t ever brush your hair, do you? It must save you so much time. That’s so handy.” 

Waters rolls his eyes. “How’s your glass of wine?” 

“It’s good. I can share,” she offers. “I’m good at sharing. I have six siblings.” 

“No, thanks.” 

“Oh, wait,” she hiccups and laughs. “You’re right, I can’t share. One of us needs to be available for parenting.” 

“Good observation.”

“I know. Do you want help with the groceries?”

“I feel like I probably shouldn’t trust you with that. The milk will end up in the cabinet or something if I do.” 

Arya smiles. “Yeah, you’re probably right.” 

* * *

Arya stares at Waters for a second while he gives a noodle to Cass. She picks it up with her fingers and sticks it in her mouth, but not before she smears sauce all over her cheek. Waters grins at Cass and tickles her knee. 

“I’m sorry I called you an asshole. Twice.”

Waters shoots a look at Arya to say “whatever,” and gives Cass another noodle. 

“I mean you kind of are, but I shouldn’t have called you one. Especially since I’m raising a kid with you now. My best friends’ kid. Who would have ever thought that would happen, huh?”

“Great, thanks. You’re a mean drunk.” 

“Hey, I’m a fun drunk! Everyone says that.” 

“Oh, sure, I’m having loads of fun. You should still probably slow it down, though.”

“It’s my first drink in months! I’ve been deprived!” She stands from the table to throw the now-empty bottle away.

Waters wipes the sauce off of Cass’s cheek. “You should get to bed.” 

“We don’t usually put her down until eight,” Arya says. 

“I wasn’t talking to her.” 

“But I’m having a good time.” 

“Well, that makes one of us. I’ll be right back, Cass,” he says and turns to Arya. “I think you’ve forgotten that you have to go to work in the morning.” 

“I’ll be fine,” Arya argues. 

“Yeah, right.” 

“Right!” 

He grabs Arya by her legs and puts her over his shoulder. 

“Hey!”

“You’ll thank me in the morning.” 

“I doubt that,” she says and hits his back. “Can you put me down?” 

“I really don’t think you’ll make it up the stairs if I do.” 

The doorbell goes off. 

“Who is it?” Arya asks Waters. 

He sets her down and blinks at her for a moment. “How would I know? I haven’t opened the door yet.” 

Arya shrugs and sits down on the steps. Waters lets out a huff of breath and walks towards the door. “I’m sure it’s the fucking neighbors, again.” 

He answers the door. “Hi, Mr. Waters.”

“Ms. Smallwood. What a surprise.” 

“You were told that I would be making a few unannounced visits.” 

He runs a hand through his hair. “Yeah, this is certainly unannounced. Could you just--just wait here for a second, please.”

“Actually, can I come in-” Waters shuts the door.

“Arya, you have five minutes to shower and sober up. I’m gonna try stalling her, okay?” 

Arya stares at him for a moment. 

“Okay?” he asks again. 

“Yes, okay. Okay, shower.” Arya starts walking down the steps. 

“No! Shower, upstairs,” he hisses. Arya turns around and grabs ahold of the bannister. He opens the front door again. 

“Sorry, we were just in the middle of dinner. Had to take the spaghetti away from Cass, so she didn’t… choke.” 

“You left the food with her while you answered the door the first time?” Ms. Smallwood asks. 

“Uh… no.” 

* * *

Arya wrestles her wet hair into a ponytail while she walks down the stairs. 

“Are you sure you don’t need to see the house again? Because--”

“Uh, no, I think I’m good with seeing it twice, now. Thanks, though.” 

“I’m so sorry, I had to get the little one--” Waters makes a quick motion in front of his throat behind Ms. Smallwood’s back, “down.” She realizes why he wanted her to stop talking because he’s clearly holding ‘the little one’ in his arms. 

“Um, okay, well,” Ms. Smallwood says. “Let’s get started.” 

“Right, of course,” Waters smiles politely and leads her into the living room. He turns back to give Arya a quick warning look. 

Ms. Smallwood sits down on a couch across from them, and Arya and Waters sit down on the loveseat. Waters sets Cass down on the floor so she can play with some of her toys.

“Okay, so let’s just talk for a little bit. I just want to get a better sense of you two, and your plans, et cetera.” 

Arya and Waters both nod. “So, let’s start with your five year plan. Arya, where do you see yourself in five years?” 

Arya almost winces. She’s not really sure where she sees herself in five hours, right now. 

“Uh, I think my five year plan and Arya’s are very similar,” Waters prompts her. “Attendings.” 

Right. 

“Yes, in five years, I see myself as the Pediatric Attending. But sooner than that, I want to be Chief Resident, first. I’m hoping to take over as Pediatric Attending for Dr. Targaryen when she leaves and I pass my Boards exam.” 

“I didn’t know Targaryen was leaving,” Waters says. 

“Yes, she told me a couple weeks ago--oh, my Gods, I didn’t include Cass! Let me start over, pl--”

“No, no, it’s okay. It’s still very new,” Ms. Smallwood says and records something on her clipboard.

“I promise, Cass is a big, big part of my plan,” Arya says. “Really, I can start over.” 

“No, it’s good. Thank you. Gendry, what’s your five year plan?”

“It's the same.”

Ms. Smallwood gives him a slow nod and purses her lips.

“But with more Cass. Obviously in my five year plan, she’s going to preschool and--and school.” 

“Okay, good. From my understanding, you’re both single and not presently engaged in a relationship.” 

Arya blinks for a moment. Those are the same thing. Her head hurts. 

Ms. Smallwood sighs. “You’re not sleeping together.” 

“No, no, no!” They both say. 

“Gods, no!” Arya says. 

“Not a chance,” Waters says. 

“Okay, good. Great, because this situation is complicated enough without throwing two single adults under the same roof. We don’t want any added drama complicating life for Cassana.” 

“There’s no reason to be concerned,” Arya says. “We won’t be complicating anything with that. He gets plenty of that elsewhere, I’m sure.” 

“Nice. Thanks, Arya.” Waters grimaces at her. 

“Oh, no. I said something wrong. I’m… I’m sorry.” 

“It just wasn’t really a necessary comment, so…”

“Look,” Ms. Smallwood interrupts. “I’ll be honest. You two are going through one of your worst years right now. You just lost your two best friends and family, so we need to avoid any more complications. We don’t want issues between the two of you to cause issues for Cassana. So, just be pleasant with one another. Cassana is going to pick up on the little digs you two have at each other, so if you’re gonna be assholes to each other, don’t do it in front of Cassana.” 

* * *

“How can I be hungover if I haven’t even slept, yet,” Arya whines. Cass screams in response. 

“She’s not warm, she doesn’t have a fever, so we just need to put her down. She’s overly tired.” 

“I know that, Waters, but she’s screaming. She won’t stop screaming if we just put her down!”

“Well, we need to do something!” 

“Shireen called one of their sitters the “Baby Whisperer,” we could try calling them.” 

* * *

“The ‘Baby Whisperer’ is a fourteen year old?” Waters asks. 

“Well, I didn’t know how old she was!” Arya says and opens the door for the girl. “Hey, Weasel, thank you so much for coming. We know how late it is.” 

“Yeah, I’ve got a math test tomorrow, so I need to get home quick. Cass likes to be rocked under the fan above the stove,” Weasel says and reaches for Cass. 

Waters crosses his arms and glares at Arya after Weasel walks towards the kitchen. “She could have told you that over the phone. You didn’t need to make the poor girl come all the way out here.” 

“Well then, you should’ve called her,” Arya hisses back. She drank an entire bottle of wine less than two hours ago, so it wasn’t really fair to blame her for not being the quickest thinker right now. 

Miraculously, the house goes silent. Arya walks into the kitchen where Weasel cradles a calm Cass in her arms. “I don’t know why, but the fan always helps.” 

“Thank you, Weasel,” Waters says. 

“Yeah, of course. Anyway, test, tomorrow,” she says. Arya nods and grabs Cass from her. She walks up the steps slowly so she doesn’t rouse Cass too much and gently lays her in her crib.

Arya closes the door and goes back downstairs to lock the doors and shut the lights off.

“I can’t believe you told the social worker I'm a whore,” Waters says while he puts sheets on the pullout couch. 

“I did not! I don’t use that word.” 

“You didn’t need to use the word to say it. You said I get plenty elsewhere. Ms. Smallwood probably doesn't like the sound of that. And by the way, I _don’t_ , actually.”

“My condolences.”

“I’ve been pretty focused on taking care of Cass.” 

“Good. We should both be,” she says and locks the front door. 

She is able to turn the lights in the kitchen off before Cass’s cry cuts through the house.

* * *

“Waters, you’re too close!” Arya shouts over the sound of the fan. If it’s loud from where Arya is standing, it has to be tortuous for Cass.

“This is exactly what Weasel was doing!”

“No, it’s not! You need to rock her!”

“You try it, then!” 

“Fine,” she says and takes Cass from his arms. Arya tries humming and patting her back while rocking her under the fan, but Cass just screams some more. 

“Alright, help me find the keys. We’re just gonna have to go for a drive,” Waters says. 

* * *

Waters tried to pull back into the driveway a few minutes ago, but Cass started crying again when the car stopped. He backs out of the driveway again.

Arya unbuckles her seatbelt and gets up from the backseat. She climbs into the passenger seat and pulls up a video. She connects her phone to the Bluetooth. 

“Oh, please, Gods, no,” Gendry begs. 

“I’m doing this for us.”  
“You’re doing it for you. This is a selfish decision.” 

Arya rolls her eyes and presses play. The awful tune plays over the speakers, and Cass fusses a little softer. 

By the end of the song the first time around, Cass is done crying. Arya plays it on a loop just to be safe. 

“Fuck Baby Shark,” Waters whispers. 

* * *

“Okay, since it is going to be hard to bring a baby on a six hour drive, my family is going to come to us for my mom’s birthday.”

“Is my presence required?”

“You could at least pretend to want to meet them.” 

“Why? I’m not your boyfriend.” 

“No, we’re just raising a kid, together.” 

Waters sighs, dramatically. “Fine. You got me there.” 

* * *

Rickon holds Cass’s hands and picks her up by her arms. Cass squeals with delight as Rickon swings her towards Robb. 

“So,” Catelyn says, pulling them away from Cass. “How does this work?”

Arya takes a drink of her wine. “How does what work?”

“You two both raise her. But what do you do when one of you wants something the other doesn’t? Like say, Cass can’t watch more than an hour of TV a day, but the other lets Cass watch as much as she wants.”

Arya shrugs. Cass has definitely watched more than an hour of TV everyday because it calms her down during some of her fits. 

“You don’t know?”

“We’re still pretty new to this. It hasn’t even been two months, yet.”

“But you should discuss your parenting differences sooner than later.”

“We know that,” Arya says. She loves her mother—so much—but sometimes, her mother can be very nosy.

“I mean, what happens when you two start dating other people, eventually you’ll probably want to get married. Then there will be four parents, all with different opinions, and you’ll all still live under the same roof? Or will you pass Cass around like a football?”

“That’s not very kind to say, Mom.”

“I’m just being honest.”

“It’s not really necessary, Mrs. Stark,” Waters says. 

“Well, someone needs to say it. Are you going to attempt to form relationships with the baby involved? Let me know how that works out for you. Did you not think this through?”

“Well, we didn’t really have a lot of time for that, now did we? One night, we’re both working, and then her parents are dead, and suddenly, we’re her parents now,” Waters says. He squeezes his hand around his glass. 

“We’re trying to focus on one thing at a time, Mom. Relationships aren’t really our number one priority right now. Cass is.” 

“I’m just saying it’s something you need to start thinking about eventually. It’s unlikely that you two will stay single and raise Cass with just the two of you forever.”

“Thank you for the advice, Mom.” Arya decides that now is probably a good time to put away the wine. Since Ned’s death, her mother does not fare so well with alcohol anymore. 

“Eventually, Cass will be old enough to understand that you two aren’t married. You’re going to need to present a united front for her. Is _this_ united? Do you think you’re setting a good example for your child?” 

Gendry stands up from the table. “She’s not my child. She’s my sister’s.” Arya’s siblings stop laughing with Cass and look up at the scene.

“Gendry,” Arya says, but he walks towards the front door and grabs his keys. 

“I need some air.”

Arya turns back to her mother. 

“Well, isn’t he pleasant?” 

Arya rubs her temples. “You didn’t have to be so rude to him.” 

“I wasn’t being rude. Just honest,” she says and takes another drink from her glass.

“That’s pretty much the same to you anymore,” Arya mutters and puts the cork back in the bottle of the wine. 

* * *

Arya rubs her fingers on the designs painted on the wall. Waters opens the door, but Arya doesn’t look up. She has no idea what she should even say to him. 

“Shireen hand painted all of those,” he says. “I teased her about how it would bring down the value of the house since she’s probably the only person I know who likes old-fashioned looking walls with hummingbirds on them, but now I’m glad she did.” 

Arya smiles a little. “Me too.” 

“Shireen was the only person I ever had. We’ve been together since we were kids, and I haven’t quite learned how to deal with that fact that she’s gone. Sometimes it’s easy to pretend like she’s coming back. So, when your mom was talking about long term stuff and being good parents to Cass, I just… had to deal with something I’ve been stuffing down.” 

Arya looks away from the wall and at Gendry. 

“I’m sorry that I ruined your mom’s birthday dinner.” 

Arya gives him a small laugh. “I think she ruined that on her own.” 

Gendry sits down on the couch by her. 

Arya doesn't miss his attempt to change the subject after opening up to her. “I’ve been watching some old videos of them just to hear their voices, and I found this one.” 

She hands Gendry her phone. It’s a video that Shireen had taken the day Lyanna was discharged from the hospital with Cass. 

“Surprise!” Shireen coos when Lyanna opens the door to Cass’s bedroom. “I know you wanted to keep it a secret that we were having a girl, so I waited. But I kept the cream walls like you wanted and then I did the little purple flowers.”

“Shy, when did you paint this?” 

“This morning. I wanted it to be a surprise for you.” 

“I wanted you to wait. It smells like paint fumes.” 

“No, it’s dry. It’s been twelve hours.” 

“That’s not long enough! She can’t sleep in a room with wet paint, she’s a baby.” 

“It’s not wet, Lyanna! I wouldn’t bring a baby into a room with wet paint,” Shireen says and sets her camera down to wipe the walls with her finger to prove it’s dry. 

Gendry lets out a small laugh and smiles at Arya before he looks back at the video.

“Well, of course, it’s not wet, but it smells for days afterwards.” 

“It’s aired out, I promise,” Shireen says. “I thought you’d be excited.” 

“I like it, but I wish you had waited. She can’t sleep in here tonight,” Lyanna says and leaves the room. 

“Of course she can,” Shireen calls. 

“You have to move the crib.” 

“This is her room!” Shireen starts to follow Lyanna, but turns around to turn her camera off first. 

“So, it’s okay that we fight and want to kill each other half the time since they did, too?” 

“Yes,” Arya says. “I think we need to stop trying to fit ourselves into their lives. We’ve been tiptoeing around their house like they’re gonna be back any minute.” 

“I hate this house. I feel like Shireen’s always watching me.” 

“I know.” Arya sighs. “I feel like everytime I stick a dish in the wrong spot, Lyanna is just going to appear and knock it out of my hands.” 

“As she should,” he says. Arya gives him a tiny smile.

“We need to let this house be ours.”

“Let’s start by getting rid of the giant photo Shireen took of Lyanna’s mouth hanging in the hallway.” 

“Oh, but that’s from the college days of pink hair and tacky filters,” Arya teases. The house is covered in the photos Shireen took, and Arya doesn’t want to part with them. However, Arya has to agree that the sensual photo of her best friend probably doesn’t belong in the living room. 

“I don’t like seeing it everytime I wake up.” 

“Wherever it goes, we’re putting a sheet over it.” 

Gendry laughs. Then he pauses for a moment. “You’re right. If we’re gonna live here, we’ve got to stop pretending like they’re coming back.” He takes a deep breath. “They’re not coming back.” 

She nods and her eyes start to well with tears. Gendry puts his arm on the backrest behind her. He’s not touching her, but he’s inviting her if she wants the comfort. Arya leans against him and he moves his arm from the armrest to her shoulder. He rubs his fingers against her arm. 

He wipes his eyes with his free hand. “Well, since Cass is sleeping, we might as well watch the game.” 

Arya smiles and nods, eager for a distraction from her feelings. He lets go of her to get the remote, and the loss of his touch makes her kind of sad in an unfamiliar way. But, when he sits back down by her, he wraps his arm around her again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you all for reading!! i hope you like this!


	4. knots

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> arya and gendry have the night off and make a complicated situation even more complicated

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> warning: this chapter has drug and alcohol use

_It's like pulling teeth to get inside of your head_   
_Because you've invested time not to say what's on your mind_   
_Now I'm pulling out every strand and you can see_   
_Every single vein on the back of my hand_

_As I wait for you to tell me you love me_

_Knots ~ Speak Low If You Speak Love_

“Hi,” Cass says while peering up at Arya from her crib. She said her first word the week before and now she loved to say it. Arya wishes she had recorded it, especially for Waters to see, but she didn’t expect Cass to actually say anything through her frequent babbling. 

“Hi, Cass. Good morning,” Arya says, and Cass grins at her. 

“Hi.” 

“Are you hungry?” Arya asks and picks her up. 

She walks Cass downstairs and even tries setting her on her feet to get her to take a step towards the kitchen while she holds Arya’s hand, but Cass clings to her leg. Arya picks her up again and carries her to her highchair to give her some oatmeal. 

Arya looks out the window to see Waters jogging along the sidewalk while she waits for the oatmeal to cook and starts laughing. Beth clearly oogles him when he runs past her house, but he doesn’t even return her polite wave. He just keeps jogging back to their house.

“Good morning.” 

“Morning,” he says. 

“Hi,” Cass shifts in her high chair to look at him. 

“Hi,” he grins and walks over to kiss her forehead. “I’m gonna go take a shower.” 

“Good,” Arya teases. “Tell him he stinks,” she coos to Cass.

Waters rolls his eyes, but he still smiles at Cass’s giggles. 

Arya sets the oatmeal in the freezer for a minute to cool it and gives Cass a few Cheerios while they wait, which Cass happily eats. When the oatmeal is cool enough, Arya brings it over to Cass and sits in front of her. She scoops a little up and hands the spoon to Cass so she can try feeding herself. Cass gets the spoon to her mouth, but sets it down after her bite in favor of just scooping the oatmeal up with her hands. Arya laughs when Cass drops most of her handful into her lap. 

“You missed,” she coos and Cass grins at her. 

When Cass finishes eating, Arya pulls her bib off and sets it in the sink with the dishes. She wipes Cass’s face and hands with a baby wipe before pulling her out of the high chair. 

“We need to change your clothes, you’re messy,” Arya says and pinches Cass’s cheek. She carries Cass upstairs and sets her on the changing table to change her diaper and clothes. “All clean,” she coos and picks Cass back up to snuggle her before she has to leave for work. 

“I like your hair like that,” Waters says from the doorway. “It’s nice.” He dries his hair with a towel. 

Arya looks at the limp braid from last night over her shoulder and raises her eyebrows. She was going to redo it before she left for work, but Cass has been pulling Arya’s hair out of it’s hold a lot recently. 

“Oh, um... thank you,” she says, just as Cass tugs on the chunk she’s wrapping her fingers in. Arya winces and attempts to detangle Cass’s fingers. 

“I think Cass likes it too,” Waters says and steps forward. He sets his towel on his shoulder. He reaches down to help pull Cass’s fingers out of her hair. Arya freezes up while Waters carefully unravels the strands and pulls Cass’s hand free. Waters smiles a little and smooths down her hair, tucking it behind her ear. “All fixed.” Cass tries to grab Arya’s hair again, but Waters plucks her out of Arya’s arms. 

“Anyways, I go in at one, so I’ll drop Cass off at daycare, and then you’ll pick her up after your shift?”

“Yeah, that sounds great,” Arya says. Waters even smiles at her before he steps out of the room. Arya thinks he has to be possessed. 

* * *

“Arya! Arya, she’s about to walk!” Waters shouts up the stairs at her. 

“What?” Arya rushes out of the bathtub and grabs her robe from the hook. 

“She’s standing! Get down here!”

“Okay, I’m coming! Stall her!” She shouts back as she races down the hallway towards the stairs.

“Stall her? She’s a baby! How do I stall her?”

“I don’t know, just stall her!” Arya shouts from the stairs. 

She runs towards the kitchen, but almost slips on water from her hair. She catches herself on the frame of the archway, just in time to see Waters panic shove Cass. 

“Waters! Why would you push her?” Cass falls onto her butt and turns red in the face. 

“You--you--you told me to stall her! I didn’t know what to do!” 

“I said _stall_ , not traumatize! Now she’ll never walk!”

“How is this my fault?” 

Arya gives him an incredulous look and scoops up a crying Cass. “You’re the one who pushed her, baby pusher.” 

“Come on, really?”

“Yes, really, baby pusher.” 

* * *

“I have good news and bad news, Elle,” Arya says to her patient. “The good news is that once we find out your red blood cell count is perfect, you get to go home, but the bad news is you don’t get to see me anymore,” she teases with a frown. 

Elle smiles at Arya, showing off the gap in her mouth from her missing front teeth. “Really?” 

“Really, really. I should know in about an hour and then I’ll come up to tell you,” she says. 

Arya shuts the door to Elle’s room behind her as her phone starts ringing. 

“Hey, Dr. Stark, this is Willow from the daycare, would you be able to come get your daughter?”

_Daughter_. It’s been three months and the word still feels funny. 

“What’s happened? Is she alright?”

“She fell and hit her head pretty hard--”

“Does she need stitches?” Arya asks and has to stop herself from running to the stairs. “Did she lose consciousness, can she stand?” 

“She can stand, but she won’t stop crying. And it’s nap time.”

“I’m on my way.” 

Arya hangs up her phone and takes the stairs to get to the daycare and debates whether or not she should text Waters. She decides to wait until she finds out how serious Cass’s injury is before she distracts him. 

Arya can hear Cass crying all the way down the hall and makes a mental note to bring the daycare workers muffins tomorrow for having to deal with Cass’s screaming while the other kids are trying to take their naps. She doesn’t even make it all the way to the door before Willow walks out with Cass. She plops Cass into Arya’s arms. 

Arya looks at the small cut on Cass’s forehead. It won’t need stitches, but Arya is going to clean it up. Cass stops crying a little when Arya wraps her arms around her and Willow tells her about the tumble she took. 

“Thank you for getting her. I couldn’t get her to calm down.” 

“No problem. I’ll go clean her up and then I’ll probably take a lap or two around the floor with her so she can calm down before I bring her back.” 

Willow sighs in relief and thanks Arya again.

* * *

Cass calms down after the few laps Arya walks her, but she gets upset each time Arya tries to leave her at the daycare center. And, Arya needs to visit Elle so she can discharge her. Waters has been in surgery and will be in for at least another hour, so Arya can’t give Cass to him for a few minutes. She has to go with a last resort decision. 

“Myrcella. Myrcella, please if you could just hold her for one second. She’s calm now,” Arya begs. Cass liked Myrcella a fair amount, and it wasn’t like Arya could call up the Baby Whisperer at noon on a Tuesday. 

“No, Arya. This is my lunch break. I’ve been taking care of other people’s babies all day, I don’t want to watch yours, too.”

“You don’t even have to do anything, I promise. She just wants to be held. I have to go discharge my patient.”

Myrcella sighs deeply and stabs a piece of pasta with her fork. “Give her here.” 

“Oh, thank you, thank you. I’ll be back in ten minutes,” Arya promises and tries to pass Cass to Myrcella. 

But, Cass clings to her scrub top and starts crying again. 

“It’s okay, Cass. I’ll be back in just a few minutes,” she coos, but Cass cries louder. 

Arya sighs. She pulls Cass against her chest and pats her back for a while. 

“Thank you for trying,” Arya says to Myrcella. 

“Sure. You look so good with a baby, Arya. She’s like a little accessory.”

“A little crying accessory,” Arya says. So much for trying to discharge Elle. 

* * *

Arya tries rocking Cass to sleep so she can take her back to daycare without Cass noticing long enough to discharge Elle, but everytime Cass hears a sound she opens her eyes. Arya sighs and walks towards the on-call room. The sounds of the hospital were still loud in the on-call room, but it was significantly quieter than standing in the hallway with Cass. 

Arya reaches forward to open the door, but the handle twists before she has the chance. She takes a step away so the door can open, and Dr. Targaryen steps out of the room. She almost jumps when she sees Arya. 

“Stark. I wasn’t expecting you,” she says and lays a hand over her heart. “How’s the little one doing?” 

Cass frowns and buries her face in Arya’s shoulder. “Grumpy,” Arya answers, apologetically. Dr. Targaryen smooths down her braids and gives Arya a smile. “Well, I’ll just be on my way. I hope Cass feels better.” 

Arya smiles and thanks Dr. Targaryen before she opens the door. “Hey, Jon.” 

Jon knocks his head on the bunk above him before he turns around. “Arya. I didn’t hear you come in,” he says. 

“What is with you and Targaryen?” Arya asks. Jon stays silent. Arya pays attention to his current action. “Why are you changing those sheets, Jon?” 

“Uh--”

“Did you seriously--” Arya stops herself from saying ‘fuck’ just in time. “You and Targaryen, in the _on-call_ room?” 

“No! Of course not!” 

“Your scrub top is inside out! Why are you lying?” Arya asks. 

“Don’t tell anyone. But Daenerys and I are dating. And I feel really sleazy when I go back to her house with her three kids, but she can’t exactly leave them at home that often, so we’re working with what we’ve got, okay?” 

“When exactly were you going to tell me that you’re sleeping around with my boss?” 

“Well, you’ve had your hands pretty full.” Jon motions to Cass. 

“I’m sorry that I’ve been too busy raising a child to ask about your dating endeavors with Dr. Targaryen,” Arya rolls her eyes. 

“I don’t fault you for it,” Jon teases. 

“You better not. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to find somewhere else to get my kid to sleep, since you’ve sleazed up the on-call room.”

* * *

Arya can finally discharge Elle two hours later than she had planned when she passes Cass off to Waters as soon as she finds out he’s finished his surgery.

* * *

“So, I just wanted to come by and talk about what plans you’ve made about the house,” Ms. Naath says. Arya rubs her eyes and tries not to look tired. She finished a surgery at three in the morning, but Ms. Naath could only come by at eight this morning or they would have to wait for another few weeks to meet with her. 

“I think we’re keeping it,” Arya answers. “Shireen and Lyanna loved this house, and they wanted her to be raised here.” 

“So, are you planning to get rid of your apartments and move in permanently?” 

“At least for the time being,” Waters says. “We stay here all of the time anyway, there’s no point in keeping our own places, anymore.”

* * *

“Are you going to get charged extra for breaking your lease?” Arya asks Waters at lunch the next day. He’s at least decided that since they raise a child together now, it wouldn’t kill him to eat lunch with her and her friends at work once in a while.

Myrcella knocks over her orange juice and spills it all over her brand new white scrubs.

“You’re moving in together? Permanently?” Myrcella asks as she grabs handfuls of napkins to try to wipe up the spilled juice. 

“We already live together. And I told you not to buy white scrubs.” 

“Don’t change the subject!” 

“I’ve got to go, I think I’m getting paged,” Waters lies and stands up from the table and throws his trash away. 

“Moving in together is a serious deal!”

“We already live together,” Arya says again, slowly. “We’re not dating, we just decided it’s going to be easier to stay in the house, so there’s no point in keeping our apartments for right now.”

“Well, I’m just saying,” Myrcella argues as she continues her futile attempt to wipe the orange juice off of her scrubs. 

“You have no room to talk. You and Trystane moved in together like two months after you started dating.” 

“Well that was different. We didn’t hate each other’s guts first.” 

Arya rolls her eyes.

* * *

**New Text Message**

**Myrcella: Hey were you able to find my chapstick**

**Myrcella: also I think I’m pregnant**

Arya stands up and steps away from the block tower she’s building with Cass and Waters. “I’ll be back,” she says and goes upstairs. She shuts the door to her room before she calls Myrcella. 

“You think? Have you taken a test?” 

“No. And be quiet, Trystane’s home.” 

“You haven’t told him?” 

“No!”  
“Well, you should.”

“I’m not sure. Can you bring me a--” Myrcella mumbles. 

“What?” 

She mumbles again. 

“Myrcella. I have no idea what you’re saying.” 

“Test,” she hisses. “Can you bring me a test tomorrow?” 

“Yeah, of course.” 

* * *

“Do you think that if it’s positive I can borrow Cass?” Myrcella asks from the bathroom stall the next morning.

“Borrow? She’s a kid, what the hell do you mean?” 

“Like, just babysit her for the night. For a test-run.”

“I don’t think I trust you with her for a test-run.”

“Well,” Myrcella says. “For the sake of my future child, you might need to.” 

“Positive?”

“Yeah.” 

“How do you feel?” 

Myrcella opens the stall door and heads for the sink to wash her hands. “I don’t know. Pregnant?” 

“When are you gonna tell Trystane?” 

Myrcella shrugs. “Soon. I might have a blood test first, though.” 

“Yeah, sometimes those are false positives.”

“Can I please watch Cass, now?” 

“I’ve got to ask Waters, first. I think he’ll be shocked that someone wants to watch her for their own fun and not money, but I don’t think he’ll care. You’re a neonatal nurse, so I know you know how to watch a kid.” 

* * *

“Our first night in months without a kid,” Arya says. “What should we even do?” 

“We could get drunk,” Waters says. Arya laughs. “What? Neither of us work tomorrow, we might as well.” 

“It actually sounds fun. But we should eat first.” 

“Did you learn that lesson the hard way?” Waters teases.

“How do tacos sound?”

* * *

“You know,” Waters starts. “The morning right after we hooked up--” Arya nearly spits out her drink. They were only two beers into the night and Waters was already spilling his secrets. “--and you didn’t let me explain what my phone call was about, Anguy convinced me that you didn’t chase me out because you thought I was cheating on someone. He said it was a get-rid-of-me-quick method because I was probably not great in bed.” 

“No, it wasn’t that,” Arya says. ”And you were… fine.” More than fine, actually, but Arya didn’t let herself think that often. They had made it this far without ever discussing that morning, and Arya would probably be fine keeping it that way. She had a feeling that she was missing some parts of the truth, because if Waters isn’t at work, he’s home with Cass. Arya found out from Shireen that he was never engaged, nor did he have a serious girlfriend. Arya didn’t ask anymore questions about it because of her fear of Shireen finding out. But Arya also never heard anything again of the sister. 

“Just fine?”

“We already established that the problem wasn’t your bedroom skills. The problem was you scheduled a date in my apartment the very next morning,” she scoffs. 

“Mya, my _sister_ , called me that morning because our youngest sister made me a ring at school and I lost it. Mya was helping me find it before Barra realized that it was missing because they were coming over for dinner that night. They’re related to me through our biological father, so neither of them are sisters of Shireen.”

_Oh_. 

Arya rests her head in her hands. 

“Okay, well I feel like an idiot,” she admits.

Waters shrugs. “Well, you should. If you would have let me explain, we never would’ve had to hate each other for over a year.”

“I’m pretty sure you already just hate everyone by default.” 

“I don’t hate you. Or Cass. Or my sisters. And I like most of my patients. But you’re not wrong about everyone else.” He laughs a little to himself. 

“I probably wouldn’t have believed that explanation if I’m being honest.”

“Why not? It was pretty believable.”

“This is gonna sound so cliche, but the last two relationships I had were pretty shitty, so I didn’t want to let myself get hurt again.” 

“Yeah, that is pretty cliche,” he says. “And stupid.” 

“Hey! I’m opening up to you. The least you could do is be nice.” 

“Sorry,” he says. “Tell me more about your cliche past which made you think I was cheating as your first conclusion.” 

“I dated this boy through undergrad because our parents wanted us together and he turned out to be a huge asshole and cheated on me. And then when we were interns, I was in another serious relationship with another serious asshole who tried to justify cheating because I was working way too much.”

“Well, they sound like real pieces of shit,” Waters says. Arya smiles a little.

“So, then I was like, pissed. I hooked up with another surgeon, who I was hoping would understand the complicated work-life balance I had, but before I got the chance, I thought I was getting cheated on once again.” 

“Ah. You still probably could’ve communicated with me about it. I’m sure I would’ve been able to prove I wasn’t just another cheating asshole.”

“I know. I’m sorry. It was a shitty assumption, all right?” 

“All right. I accept your apology.” Arya grins.

* * *

“This couch is not that comfy,” Arya says. They’re five beers deep now and it’s nice to not have so many responsibilities for a night.

“You’re telling me. I’ve been sleeping on it for the past ten weeks.” 

“That’s rough.” 

“I’m thirty-four years old. I have a Doctorate. And I sleep on a pull-out couch.” 

“You could take Shireen and Lyanna’s room.”

“No. No, hell no. I don’t even like to step foot in that room, I will not sleep there.” 

Arya pauses to think for a minute. “You can share my bed with me.” 

Waters laughs. “Right,” he takes another drink from his beer. 

“I’m serious.”

“Come on. We already share a house. You want me to share your bed, too?”

Arya nods. 

Waters stares at her lips for a second. “Fuck.”

“Fuck,” Arya agrees. 

“I’m gonna kiss you.”

“I’d like that. Preferably upstairs,” she says. 

Gendry nods.

* * *

“We probably shouldn’t have done that,” Gendry says. 

“Definitely not.” 

“But what’s done is done.” 

“Right,” Arya nods. She doesn’t really feel like having a serious conversation right now. “Do you want to get high?”

* * *

“Hey, Lommy, what’s up?” Gendry asks. 

“It’s midnight.” 

“You’re not sleeping yet.”

“You’re right.” 

“So, I’m just wondering--”

“I’m not selling to you, dude. You’ve got a kid in your house.” 

“Cass isn’t here, actually. And we can’t smoke it, we still get visits from our caseworker.” 

“Then call Hot Pie, what are you calling me for?”

* * *

“Hot Pie, Gendry and I want to buy some brownies.”

“It’s after midnight. You can’t make your own?”

“You know what brownies, Hot Pie.”

* * *

Hot Pie even agrees to drive the brownies to the house for an extra forty bucks and since Arya is sure this will be her last chance to get high for many years to come, she doesn’t mind shelling out the extra money. 

“I haven’t gotten high since undergrad,” she admits. 

“Same. This is gonna be interesting.”

* * *

“This is the worst fucking show,” Arya says. 

“Gods, I know.” 

“I can’t believe Cass can watch this for hours.” 

“Do you want to have sex again?” 

Arya nods and shuts the TV off.

* * *

“Arya!” 

Arya snaps out of her dream and rubs her eyes. Whoever said that definitely is not Gendry. 

She opens her eyes and sits up to see Myrcella bouncing Cass on her hip from the doorway. Gendry groans beside her. _Oh, no._

“I thought you guys weren’t dating!” Myrcella shouts. 

“Why are you in the house?” Arya asks.

“I sent you a bunch of texts.”

Arya checks her phone and sure enough she has eight missed calls from Myrcella and quite a few text messages. Her most recent are: 

**Myrcella: hey i’m here come get your kid**

**Myrcella: hellooooooo**

**Myrcella: i’m using the spare key**

“My bad,” Arya mumbles. 

“Are you just going to ignore that you’re in bed with Waters,” Myrcella says. Arya nods. 

“Just go to Cass’s room, I’ll be there in a second.” 

Arya has to sit on the edge of the bed for a few moments before she can stand. It takes her a little while to get dressed, but eventually she does and makes it to Cass’s bedroom. 

“What’s up with you? Drink too much last night?” Myrcella asks.

Arya wishes that’s all she had done. “Yeah,” she mutters. “How was Cass?” 

“Really good. She woke up a few times in the middle of the night, but I got her back to sleep. And she really liked Trystane, too.” 

“Good, good,” Arya says. She doesn’t process what Myrcella’s said for a few moments, though. “I mean, not good that she kept waking up, but… good she fell back asleep.” 

Myrcella nods. “Okay, I’ll just tell you more later, I think you need a coffee and some Advil, probably. And I expect a full update on you and Waters tomorrow.”

* * *

“Someone’s at the door,” Arya calls up to Gendry. He hasn’t pulled himself out of bed yet. She sets Cass down in her playpen to open the door and almost slams it shut. 

“Ms. Smallwood,” she chokes out. 

“Hi, Arya. I hope this isn’t an inconvenient time.” 

“No, no, it’s perfect,” Arya says. “Could I just have one moment, please?” She doesn’t wait for her response before shutting the door. She runs upstairs and shakes Gendry awake. 

“What?”

“Smallwood’s here!” 

“Now?” He groans. “That lady has the worst timing in the world.” 

“I know, so we gotta move fast! Brush your teeth and get dressed, I’m gonna try to clean up!” 

Gendry climbs out of bed and Arya runs back downstairs. She tries to clean up the living room as best as she can, and shoves the empty brownie package into the bottom of the trashcan. She doesn’t remember them eating the whole brownie, but she doesn’t have that much time to look for it, so she can only assume she forgot about eating the rest of it. She can’t tell if she smells or not and doesn’t have time to take a shower, so she sprays the kitchen and living room with Febreeze and sprays herself, too. 

“Cut it out,” Gendry hisses. “We didn’t smoke it.” Arya sprays him, too, just in case. 

“Where’s Cass?” she asks. 

“Myrcella’s,” he says and steps in front of the door. 

“No, she dropped her off this morning, and I put her in the…” she rubs her forehead. She’s never eating an edible again. “Playpen!” She plucks Cass out of the playpen in the kitchen while Gendry answers the door. 

He leads Ms. Smallwood to the living room and Arya sits down next to him with Cass in her lap. 

“You guys seem to be a little more settled today. How are things with Cassana?”

“Great! She’s started walking, now. And she says ‘hi’, ‘no’, and sometimes ‘bye’,” 

“Okay, good. How are things with you two? Cassana is going to start picking up on verbal behavior, so I’m just wondering if there’s any tension?”

“No, no tension. We’re great.” 

“Why would there be any tension,” Gendry asks. If there had been a table, Arya would have kicked him. His answer was too much. 

“Oh, okay,” she nods and writes something down. “Good. And have you two discussed your five year plan a little more? Have you figured out how it will work together?” 

Arya and Gendry share a look. “Uhm, we haven’t really gotten that far. We’re just kinda taking it one step at a time. It’s all still pretty new.”

“Yeah, new. We’re working our way up to it,” Gendry says.

“And some things just kind of happened, so we’re figuring that out, too.” 

“Oh, gods. You slept together!” 

They both look away from Ms. Smallwood’s piercing eyes and wince a little.

“We have no intention of letting our personal lives get in the way of our parenting,” Arya says.

“So, if it doesn’t work out, you two will just continue living together like nothing has gone wrong. You’ll date other people and bring them around each other?”

“Uhm...” 

“We still have one more meeting and before then, I want your personal stuff worked through. Whether you choose to get engaged or you pretend it never happened, I don’t care! Just get it worked out!”

“Right,” Gendry nods. 

“Okay.”

“You guys promised things wouldn’t get complicated. I-- Can I have this brownie, please? I just need something since you’ve ruined my day.” Ms. Smallwood picks up the last half of the brownie that they left in the living room last night on its plate. 

“No! It’s a really bad one,” Arya shouts. She really should’ve looked harder for that. 

“Too much oil,” Gendry adds.

“Way too much oil! I meant to throw it out last night.” 

She sets the brownie back down. “Sorry, your house, your food. Next meeting,” she warns. 

Arya nods and walks her to the door. She leans against the door for a moment before she walks back into the living room.

“So, do you want to talk about last night?” Gendry asks her.

“Is there a lot to talk about?” 

Arya looks at Cass for a second and decides she’d rather not discuss last night with Cass in her arms. She sets Cass down in front of the table and chairs with her crayons and a few pages before she sits next to Gendry on the couch. 

“Now that we’ve established I’m not dating my sister,” Gendry says. “I think maybe we could give it a… try,” he suggests. 

It catches her off guard. It’s not a good idea. They have Cass to think about.

“Maybe we should slow down,” Arya says. “It’s not something we have to decide right now.”

”Right, um,” Gendry clears his throat. “You’re right. We’ll see where it goes.”

He doesn’t say anything to her for a while and she doesn’t want him to be mad at her. She likes him more than she cares to admit, but everything is still so new. 

“Beth invited us and Cass to Lysara’s fourth birthday party next month,” she finally says.

“Do I have to go to that?” There’s a hint of teasing in his voice and Arya smiles.

“Um, yeah, she came to Cass’s first birthday. And she and Cley have been really welcoming to us.” 

Gendry groans dramatically. “Can I fake a work emergency?”

“You better not.”

“Fine.” He leaves the couch and kneels by Cass at her table. She runs the green crayon over the paper in scribbles. Gendry picks up the blue crayon by her and starts to color on her page, but she reaches forward to take the crayon from him. 

Gendry gives Cass the crayon and reaches for the red crayon. Cass sets down her green crayon and takes the red crayon from Gendry, too. 

He smiles. “Well, what am I supposed to draw with then, Cass?”

* * *

“Tiger,” Arya says. She emphasizes the letters in the hopes that Cass will say it back. 

“Cat,” Cass says again while she stares at the whiskers painted on Arya’s face for the birthday party. Even Gendry got stripes painted on his face. 

“She’s close enough,” Gendry says and shrugs. 

“Ti-ger,” Arya tries again with no luck. 

“Hey, Arya, Gendry, good to see you,” Samwell says as he walks over with his son. 

“Hi, Samwell, good to see you, too,” Arya says. She smiles at little Sam, who then hides behind Samwell’s leg. 

“I just wanted to congratulate you, Gendry,” Samwell says. Arya raises her eyebrows and turns to Gendry. 

He looks down at his lap for a second. 

“Congratulate you on what?” Arya asks. 

“It’s nothing,” he insists. 

“Samwell doesn’t think it’s nothing,” she says. Samwell winces. 

“It’s not a big deal. I didn’t want to ruin… the party. I’ll tell you later.” 

“Tell me now.” 

“The pediatric attending at King’s Landing is retiring and a spot opened up.” 

Arya sighs. King’s Landing is far. 

“Dondarrion wanted to refer me for it.” 

“Oh. When was this?” 

Gendry rubs his thumb. “Last week.” 

“And hopefully you were planning on telling me before you moved, right?” 

“I haven’t decided yet.”

“Daenerys told Jon that it was final,” Samwell says. 

“Yeah, and who asked you?” Gendry snaps. He stands up from his chair and walks away. 

“I’m sorry. I really thought you knew,” Samwell says. 

“No, it’s fine. I probably wouldn’t have found out otherwise.” 

“Jon says Daenerys wanted you for the job, but she didn’t think you could leave Cass.” 

Arya picks Cass up as she stands and follows Gendry. 

“So were you really not planning on telling me?” 

“I didn’t want you to get upset.” 

“Why would I be upset if you weren’t planning on taking the job?” 

“I-” 

“Are you really considering taking the job?” 

“Yeah, I am. I’ve been working towards it for years. I wouldn’t have even had to think twice about taking it before.”

“Before Cass. And before me?” 

Gendry opens his mouth but nothing comes out. 

“Whatever, I get it.” She starts to walk away from him, but she’s so mad that he wanted to take the job and madder that Daenerys thought Gendry could leave Cass so easily, and that she was _right_. 

“So if you took the job, how was that gonna work? Were Cass and I gonna go with you, or were you gonna leave us?” 

“I don’t know! I’ve never had to think for someone that wasn’t me! I really want the job.” 

“Well, have you thought about what I want? I love Cass, I love her so much it hurts, but I’m a doctor, too. I have to give stuff up for her, too! The entire point of us taking her in is because we didn’t want to uproot her! We can’t move to King’s Landing if you take the job.” 

“If I don’t take the job, it’s yours.” 

“Whatever. I can’t even talk to you right now. We’ll talk about this later.”

* * *

Arya doesn’t talk to Gendry while she scrubs the whiskers off of her face. She doesn’t even know what she should say.

“I want to take the job, Arya.” 

“I knew you were going to. You’ve been waiting for a way out for months.” 

“That’s not true! Tell me you know that that’s not true.” 

“You never wanted to raise Cass! You kept saying we couldn’t do it and you looked for other family members who would take her in.”

“I did want to! I still do! But I’ve given up so much for this!”

“ _This_?” 

“That’s—I didn’t mean—”

“Yes, you did.” Arya laughs dryly. She should’ve known better. “We’re not enough for you.” 

“I never said that.” 

“Well, you implied it when you said you’ve given up so much for us! What exactly did you give up that’s worth more than your daughter? Your apartment? A job offer?” 

Gendry rubs a hand down his face. 

“And don’t even think about saying that she’s not your daughter! If she’s not yours, whose daughter is she?” 

“She’s yours! You wanted to do this alone!”

“You don’t get to pretend like this is easier for me than it is for you because I wasn’t scared to commit to her!” 

“But it is! You always wanted to have kids and a family.” 

“Yes, but not like this! I wanted to meet someone and fall in love with them and then have kids, you don’t get to just act like I should be happier because you didn’t want this at all!”

“That’s not true!”

“Yes, it is! You didn’t want kids or a wife and you were perfectly happy working your life away, but that doesn’t mean I wanted _this_! And not the way I got it, either!”

“You don’t know that! I did want kids, but I wanted them with someone who loved me back!” Arya’s breath hitches. He couldn’t have just told her he loved her. 

“Don’t lie to me.” 

“I’m not lying. I can’t stand feeling this way about you when you don’t feel the same.”

Arya throws her hands up in frustration. “Gendry—” She cut offs. She hasn’t let herself think about becoming serious with him because Cass has been her number one priority for the past few months. She didn’t want feelings to screw them all up, and now they have. “We can’t afford to think like this.” 

“I just can’t do it, Arya. I love Cass, but you come up with every excuse to push me away.” 

She doesn’t have time to mull on the accusation when Cass starts crying upstairs. 

“Great. Now you’ve woken her up,” she hisses and pushes past him. 

He’s wrong. He doesn’t love her, they’ve just been pretending all along. They live in Shireen and Lyanna’s house, and raise their kid, and try so hard to fit themselves into their lives. 

But none of it’s been real. Especially not if he’s ready to pack up and leave the minute he gets a better option. 

“Take the fucking job.” 

“Arya, please don’t push me away. Don’t make me leave.” 

“I’m not making you do anything. You’re the one choosing to leave.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the final chapter will be up later this evening! thanks so much to everyone reading this!!


	5. wake me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the final chapter!

_Right from the start I knew_   
_You'd set a fire in me_   
_And I'd rather be sad with you_   
_Than anywhere away from you_

_And hey_   
_I can't believe I captured your heart_

_Wake Me ~ Bleachers_

Gendry picks Cass up and wraps her in a tight hug. “I love you,” he murmurs. “I’ll be back in a few weeks.” He sets her down and she teeters back to her toys. He rests his hand on the doorknob of the front door. 

“Goodbye, Arya.” 

“Goodbye,” she responds, flatly. She can count the number of exchanges they’ve had on one hand in the week since he told her he would be leaving.

“I’ll be home in a few weeks to see Cass.” 

“I heard.” 

He gives her a small nod and opens the door to step out.

* * *

“Actually, I think it will work better for Cass with just me. No arguments, no charts, no… pretending.” Arya says. She runs a hand over Cass’s head and gives her a small smile. Cass leans against her leg from where she’s sitting below the couch and runs her car over Arya’s foot. 

Ms. Smallwood nods at her from the other couch. 

“It’s not… um, ideal, but it works. For me and Cass. And for Gendry.” 

“Right. My only concern is about if you are able to establish a--” 

“I’m sorry. We’ve got to reschedule.”

“What’s the problem?”

“I’m an idiot. I need to get to the airport,” Arya says and picks up Cass. Gendry wouldn’t have boarded his flight yet, so she still has time to get to him. 

“Excuse me?”

“We’re just gonna have to meet another time!”

“Arya, what is going on? This is our last meeting and I’m booked up for the next month! We need to finish this.” 

“I don’t have time to explain so if it’s really that big of a deal, you’re just gonna have to come with me to the airport!” 

Ms. Smallwood stands up from the couch. “Okay, well, let’s go, then!” 

Arya explains everything on the way, even things that she never told Myrcella or Lyanna or Shireen, about how she always liked Gendry, but he was a huge asshole, and then she thought he turned out to be nice, and then she thought he was a huge asshole all over again, but now she might actually love him and doesn’t want him to leave for King’s Landing. 

Ms. Smallwood only gives her a polite smile in response. And then she says, “If you want to get there quickly, you might want to drive faster than the other cars.” 

Arya clears her throat a little. “Well, you’re observing me, so I don’t really want to go over the speed limit…”

“I’m observing you miss the flight! Move it!” 

“Okay!” Arya says and merges into the left lane, pushing harder on the gas pedal.

She passes a few of the cars in front of her before moving back into the right lane in time to make her exit. She miraculously finds a spot on the parking garage’s first floor and parks. She’s probably a little too close to the line on the left, but she’s in a hurry, dammit. 

Ms. Smallwood steps out of the car (still with her clipboard) and Arya unclips Cass from her carseat. She doesn’t wait for Ms. Smallwood to catch up before she starts jogging to the elevator. 

Ms. Smallwood catches up while Arya is waiting in line to purchase her ticket. She chews on her bottom lip. Gendry’s plane is going to start boarding in thirty minutes. The line moves slowly, but Arya finally makes it to the front desk. 

“Hi, I need two tickets that will get me as close to terminal T as possible. Or, three tickets? Does a one year old need a ticket?” 

“Not if she sits in your lap,” the clerk says. 

“Okay, perfect,” Arya says. Ms. Smallwood hands her the cash for her share of the tickets and Arya winces at how much one plane ticket costs. She doesn’t have time to dwell on it though since Gendry’s plane is now boarding in sixteen minutes and she has to get through security still. 

Arya didn’t carry Cass’s diaper bag in, so the only things she had were her shoes, wallet, and keys, so hopefully she will get through quickly. 

She taps her fingers on Cass’s back while waiting in line. 

_Five minutes._

She pulls her shoes off once they get closer to the front of the line and gets ready to grab a bin. She stretches her hand out to grab a bin and pulls it to her. She tosses her stuff in.

“The baby’s shoes, too.” 

“What? She’s a baby,” Arya groans as she struggles to unclasp the buckle on Cass’s sandal, but Cass pulls her foot away. 

“Give her to me,” Ms. Smallwood says. “Go!” 

“Okay, okay,” Arya says and passes Cass to Ms. Smallwood. She walks through the metal detector and buzzes. “Oh, my fucking Gods,” she groans. She forgot about her belt. She undoes it and tosses it in the bin and walks through, piling all of her stuff into her arms. 

_One minute._

Arya drops her shoes to the ground and puts them on as best as she can before she starts running. Even if Gendry’s plane is already boarding, he might not be on it yet. She can still catch him before he gets on.

She can distantly hear the clack of Ms. Smallwood’s heels behind her and Cass babbling, but she can’t stop for them. Gendry’s plane has been boarding for ten minutes already. 

Arya finally reaches the gate, but it’s empty except for a few workers. 

She sighs deeply before she turns around to see Ms. Smallwood give her a pitiful look. Arya holds out her arms for Cass and kisses her forehead. 

“Let’s go home, honey,” she murmurs. 

* * *

Ms. Smallwood makes it the entire ride back to the house before she starts yelling. “You ran all the way there,” she says and her face reddens. “I thought that when I took Cassana everything would be okay.” Arya feels like she’s getting lectured as she parks the car in the driveway.

“I know,” Arya says. “And don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine, I have Cass. Maybe this is how it was meant to be,” she says.

Ms. Smallwood nods. “But you’re just gonna be so unhappy,” she blurts. “I can’t believe he would just leave you and this beautiful baby! For a job!” 

Arya sighs deeply. She doesn’t really want to think about that right now. She wants to take a hot bath and maybe watch a movie with Cass. 

“I need to get Cass inside,” Arya says and gets out of the car to unbuckle Cass.

“You’re gonna be a great mom,” Ms. Smallwood says. “Screw him!” 

Arya nods at the advice. “Thanks.” She picks Cass up and Ms. Smallwood gets out of her car. 

“And I’ll let CPS know you passed.” 

“Thank you.”

“I’m sorry that I yelled,” Ms. Smallwood says and Arya walks to the front porch. 

She points to Cass. “No problem. Used to yelling,” she says with a fake smile. Arya would just like her to leave so she can wallow in peace.

Ms. Smallwood gives her a thumbs up, and Arya walks inside. She lets Cass down and Cass walks to her toys in the corner of the living room. Arya sets her stuff down on the couch and walks to the kitchen to grab Cass a snack. 

“Arya.” 

“Oh, my Gods!” She jumps. “Waters!”

“I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to scare you! I still had my key and I thought you’d still be here with Smallwood.”

“Gendry--” 

“I couldn’t leave Cass. Or… you. None of it is worth anything if you’re not with me. I know why Shireen and Lyanna picked us, and it’s not because we were the closest to them, but it’s because you and me and Cass are a family. Arya, I fell in love with you. I know you might need time, and I can wait, but I can’t leave you.” 

Arya smiles and wipes her eyes. “I was at the airport,” she says. “I thought I was gonna catch you.” 

“So, you’re telling me that I could’ve just stayed at the terminal and I didn’t have to rehearse that the entire Taxi ride home?” 

She laughs. “I still liked hearing it.” 

“What about the part where I said I loved you? Did you like that? Because I can say it again.” 

“Say it again.” 

“I fell in love with you, Arya.” He smiles at her and Arya leans up to kiss him. She wraps her arms around his neck and he presses his hands to her waist. 

“I fell in love with you, too,” she whispers. 

* * *

“The birthday girl has a request for the party planner,” Gendry says and steps into the kitchen with Cass. “What do you say?” he whispers. 

“Cake, please,” she says. She misses a few letters when she says “please” and Arya grins. 

“Cake? You want some cake?” she coos. Cass smiles and nods. “Okay, let’s have some cake,” she says and carries the cake into the dining room where all of the guests are gathered. They sing “Happy Birthday” to her, and Arya blows out the candles for Cass. Gendry cuts the cake up for all of the guests and passes a few slices to Daenerys for her boys. She reaches over the table again and accidentally scrapes her new engagement ring through the frosting on the cake. 

“Ooh, sorry,” she says. “I’m not used to it yet,” she laughs a little. 

“It’ll taste just the same,” Arya waves her off as she works on getting Cass into her booster seat at the table. 

She sets a slice of cake in front of Cass with a spoon and helps Gendry finish passing out the rest of the cake slices. 

Lommy walks up to Cass later in the night with a gift bag. He pulls the item out and hands it to Cass. “Baby’s first gold chain,” he coos. 

“Get that away from my kid,” Gendry shouts and takes the necklace from her hand. “She’s two, fuckhead! She could strangle herself.” 

“Fuck Gendry, don’t stay fuck in front of Cass,” Arya teases. But she does still plan to chew Lommy out for that gift after the party. 

“Stop it, or else she really will say fuck!” Myrcella warns. She slaps a hand over her mouth. “I’m so sorry,” she winces and rocks her own baby. Luckily, her daughter is too young to repeat the word, but the same can’t be said about Cass. 

“Fuck,” Cass says. 

“No!” Arya and Gendry both shout. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you so much to randifrnZ for betaing and helping me make sure every chapter was perfect before posting and thank you so much to the-bisexual-disaster for being my artist !!! i've added the art to the beginning of the first chapter so make sure you all check that out!!


End file.
